


Knife of Iron

by A_chaotic_person



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, BAMF Michelle Jones, BAMF Peter Parker, Fae & Fairies, Fae Peter Parker, Fluff, Gen, Magic, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Ned is also a BAMF but you don't get to see it, Not Canon Compliant, POV Michelle Jones, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Self-Indulgent, Spiders, There's not enough fantasy stories in this fandom so I wrote one myself, Uh there's only a little of those last two, idk what most people consider body horror but there might be some of that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27263251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_chaotic_person/pseuds/A_chaotic_person
Summary: “May I have your name?”  The strange boy grins, reaching out as if to take her hand.She is smarter than that, always has been, and won’t be fooled by a façade of someone her age. “My friends call me MJ,” she says, and keeps her hands to herself.----------------In which there's strange happenings in the woods, mischievous fae-boys, an old feud, and MJ intends to destroy a monarchy with a Morningstar.
Relationships: Hinted tho, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds/Peter Parker, a lil hint of Ned Leeds/Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, past Harry Osborn & Peter Parker
Comments: 23
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

MJ knows that the fae are dangerous.

They live in the woods, looking like any other person on the surface, yet their movements are inhumanly graceful. There’s whispers around the city, of childlike logic and grins and eyes tricking people into giving whatever they have; their gold, their names, their gifts and possessions. They take entire people sometimes, too, kids and adults alike. Those that come back aren’t quite the same after, their fingers twitchy and their heads lost forever to the clouds.

MJ’s dad was taken before the gates were built when she was seven. He wasn’t one of the ones that made it back. She’s angry about this sometimes, that he hadn’t resisted or fought them off, but she doesn’t stay angry very long. Nobody really makes it out, and even if her dad came back she knows she might not have recognized him.

 _The fae are dangerous._ It’s just a fact; like that an enneacontakaienneagon has ninety-nine sides or that men are statistically more likely to have higher wages. Men are dangerous too, but—in a different, more human way. Anything the fae can do is much, much more horrifying than anything a person could do.

People don’t leave the city much, not since the forest grew closer to the iron gates. There’s only one truly safe exit now, the farthest from the trees that creep closer and closer, waiting to trap the traders that come and go. Even those that _do_ leave keep their fingers bound in iron rings and wear belts of thick iron chains, both to assure everyone else that _no, we aren’t fae, it’s okay_ , and to keep a weapon close.

MJ herself wears just one ring, but she keeps an iron knife strapped to her arm, underneath her sleeve. She really doesn’t _need_ that extra protection, she has no reason to leave the city, after all, and no reason to use them— yet.

She lives on the outskirts of the city, close to the gates and close to the woods. She’s observant; she’s heard shouting, seen brief flashes of fighting. _Something_ is happening, and MJ intends to be prepared.

She sneaks out of the city late one day to investigate. Well, sneak may not be the right word. She tells her mom she’s headed to Ned’s—a project for class—then she tells Ned she wanted to take a walk, alone, to see if she could find anything interesting to sketch, _thanks Ned, see you later dork_. The main gates aren’t guarded, exactly, so she slips out easily.

She walks cautiously and quietly, listening to every sound and whirling around to follow any sign of movement. She probably looks like a lunatic, but she doesn’t care. She fingers the knife in her sleeve. Better safe than sorry.

Something sways in the corner of her eye, and she jumps violently.

There’s a boy, hanging from a tree by his knees. His eyes are closed, and he looks almost serene, smiling angelically right up until he flips to his feet. He looks as though he belongs here, in the woods—brown hair and warm brown eyes, and tattered red clothes that have been patched over and over and _over_ again. He’s smudged all over with dirt, and though some of it almost glitters MJ can’t help but think that a fae would clean themselves up when using a glamor. Look a little more human and a little less— _not_ human, a little less pretty.

“May I have your name?” The strange boy grins, reaching out as if to take her hand.

She is smarter than that, always has been, and won’t be fooled by a façade of someone her age. “My friends call me MJ,” she says, and keeps her hands to herself.

Strangely, his smile doesn’t falter. “Hi MJ!” he chirps. “I’m Spidey! I’m glad we’re friends!”

She frowns at him. “We aren’t friends.”

“You said your friends call you MJ. _I_ call you MJ, so we’re friends!”

She huffs. “That’s not how it works.”

“Okay,” he shrugs. “What’s your name, then?”

“What’s _your_ name?” It isn’t her best retort ever, okay, but this is dangerous. She knows her already-slim chance of getting back to the city will disappear if he gets her name.

He blinks. “I told you, it’s Spidey.”

“Your parents named you Spidey?” She squints at him. He doesn’t expect her to believe that, does he? It’d be a strange name for a person, but it seems too clunky to belong to a fae. Fae are supposed to be graceful, sly, and smooth. Spidey is dirty and stumbles over his words.

He laughs like she’s told the funniest joke in the world. “Nah, I named myself Spidey.” He tilts his head “What are parents?”

Do fae just straight up abandon their children as soon as possible? Yikes. No wonder they’re so messed up; they’re stuck in some kind of cycle of neglect where the young are left to their own devices and never learn to behave or respect people. Then they go and do the same thing all over again to their kids.

“Parents are the people who raise you.”

“Oh.” Spidey scratches the back of his head. “I guess my parents did name me Spidey, then.”

Is this guy for real?

He catches sight of her expression. “Well—you said parents raise you, and _I_ raised me, and I also _named_ me, so my parents named me.”

“How _old_ are you?” The words escape before she can reconsider saying them. It’s just- he looks her age, and though she knows it’s an illusion, made to trap her into trusting him, he really does act like most of the other boys she knows; saying dumb, nonsensical things and covered in dirt he hasn’t bothered to wipe off. He’s nicer than most boys she’s talked to, but fae are supposed to be deceptively sweet and really, the only decent boy she knows is Ned, so it isn’t like the bar for being nice is very high.

“How… old are you?”

 _Ooooh_ but he can be just as insufferable as other boys. “What unit of time do you want my age measured in?” If he’s gonna throw her questions back at her then she intends to be difficult.

He blinks. “I dunno, what’s your favorite?”

What.

“What.”

Spidey looks up at the trees and kicks at the ground. “What? You can tell me your favorite- uh, time measurement and I’ll tell you mine.”

“You go first. I don’t know how you measure time.”

His smile is bright, though she can’t help but notice how sharp his teeth are. “By the sleeping cycle!”

“You mean day and night?”

His hair fluffs into a bigger mess as he shakes his head. “No. It’s time to sleep for ages when the cold comes, and time to wake up again when it’s warmer! I’ve slept like that…” he shrugs. “…Fifteen times, I think?”

MJ thinks of a man who came to the city a year or two ago. He traded stories, and MJ had liked the way he told them. _Now we don’t have time to unpack_ **_all_ ** _of that_ , he’d said once. This seems like an appropriate time to think that.

“Fae… hibernate?”

“Hibernate?”

“It’s a word for when animals—just mammals, actually—sleep through the winter- uh, the cold season.”

Spidey leans towards her, and she takes a few steps back. “What’s a mammal?”

Wow, this guy really never got any schooling, huh.

“Some other time—I should really head back home-”

“Wait!” Spidey bounces forwards, rough nails digging into her arm. She shouts in surprise and presses her ring to the hand holding her, and he jerks back, yelping. She unsheathes the little knife and holds it up threateningly.

“Don’t touch me,” she hisses out. “I only came to the woods to see what the fighting’s about, and I’ll stab you _right now_ if you don’t tell me.”

She’s never stabbed anyone. It could be kind of exciting, to be honest.

He stumbles a few steps away from her, reaching blindly for a tree branch. He grabs hold and pulls himself up in a fluid motion. He crouches on the branch, leaning dangerously forward; like he’s so fascinated by her that he can’t help but get closer, even as she waves a knife at him.

“We were _talking_ ,” he complains.

“You grabbed me!”

“You were gonna leave!”

“Yeah!” MJ stomps a few steps closer. “I was! I came here for one reason, and you distracted me! Besides, you’re dangerous!”

He hops to a higher branch and peers at her through the leaves. “ _I’m_ dangerous? You have a knife!”

“ _Fae_ are dangerous, and you-!”

“Well, what have we here?”

MJ makes a split-second decision to turn her back to the boy in the tree and barely manages to duck the clawed fingers that reach for her. Something _yanks_ her up into the tree, and she shakes her head to try to see through the stars that assault her vision. Strangely enough, the stars persist, swimming around her head like magic.

Magic. Fae boy. _Oooh_ she’s going to _gut_ him for this.

Sounds leak through the stars, shouts and hisses and banging. If she tries, she can feel the tree branches shaking, but it seems distant and unimportant. The more she thinks about it, the more uncertain she becomes that she’s even in a tree. Perhaps she’s on her bed, dreaming of the sky. She smiles, a little dreamily, and bats at the stars. Her hand burns through them, and they sputter out like dying fireflies.

She gasps, bringing her hand to her head, the iron ring tangling briefly in her curls. With the stars gone, she can see Spidey fighting a- a _thing_ , massive and green and smashing into trees left and right. It swipes at him, knocking him back, and advances.

MJ slithers down to the ground, far less gracefully than Spidey had earlier, and sneaks up on the thing. It clearly isn’t human, and she figures any weapon that can hurt the fae can hurt whatever it is. She darts forward and plunges her knife into a tail. The skin around the knife blackens and the thing _howls_ , whirling around to face her, its movement ripping the knife from her hand.

It’s ugly, with yellow eyes and big teeth set in an insane grimace. Purple horns curl around its head, and spit drips from its mouth as it hisses at her.

“You dare hold iron against me?” it shrieks, eyelids peeling back impossibly further.

MJ bumps against a tree. Well, she kind of figured she’d die as soon as she saw Spidey but this really isn’t how she expected it to happen. Oh well. She puts her fists up and vaguely wonders how people will think she died—a mystery death, how exciting.

Those claws wrap around her, biting into her sides. She’s lifted up and she kicks her legs, even though she knows it’s useless. She screams, and so does the thing. It drops her with a _crack_ and her bones feel like they’re shaking right out of her skin. She doesn’t know if it’s because of the impact or the fear.

Spidey runs around the thing. “Catch!”

Her knife slices into the ground two inches from her hand and her heart just about falls out of her chest. Her hands shake as she picks it up and she nearly drops it again. MJ remembers making fun of certain stories, how people froze up when they were in danger and never seemed to save themselves. She’d scoffed; if someone’s about to die they won’t just do nothing. Fear is a hell of a drug but _surely_ people don’t become incapable of fighting.

Now, as she struggles to stand and keep her grip on her one weapon, she understands.

Spidey has his legs locked around the thing’s neck, but it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to strangle it. His arm is tucked over its eyes, and the thing thrashes about, trying to buck Spidey off so it can see again. Spidey’s other arm whips out, and he’s fast fast _fast_ pulled to a tree branch on the other side of the clearing that’s been created from all the trees that have been smashed. He laughs as the thing plows head-first into a tree, its horns skewering into the bark and keeping it there, stuck.

MJ takes her chance and runs forwards to drag the knife down its back. It thrashes and screeches, burns blistering around its torn skin, before it seems to pass out. Spidey lands deftly beside her, grinning.

“How do we kill it?” she pants, leaning on the knife still embedded in the thing.

Spidey gives her on odd look, almost disappointed. “Kill it?”

“I mean… yeah. What else is there to do with it?”

Spidey shrugs. “Trap them? Take ‘em home and convince them to be nice?”

MJ squints. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and I had a conversation with you for like ten minutes.” She pulls her knife from the thing and wipes her hair off her forehead. She kicks at the thing and jumps back when it twitches. “What is it, anyway?”

Spidey’s face screws up. “Goblin.”

“What.”

He shrugs. “’S a goblin. They aren’t usually so big, but they’re almost always mean.”

“So… we should kill it.”

He scowls at her. “What is with you? Killing people is wrong, no matter how bad they are.”

“Well if you leave it alive it can do more bad things later!”

“People deserve second chances-”

“No,” she snaps. “Have you never heard the expression ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’? How many chances do you give until it kills _you_?”

Spidey hunches his shoulders, sullen.

MJ takes a few steps away from him and breathes deeply. This shit isn’t what she came here for. Who is a fae to try and teach morality, anyways? “So, goblins are the ones fighting?”

“Huh?”

She nearly snaps at him again but pulls back. Sits down, closes her eyes and leans against a tree. When she opens them, he’s mirrored her position, albeit more attentive. “Listen,” she says. “I live close to the gates. Sometimes I can hear sounds of people fighting. I honestly kind of figured it was travelers who got too close to the woods and the fae— _you_ —pulled them in, but…” She gestures to the goblin.

Spidey snorts. “We’re always fighting goblins—or, well, I am anyways.” He pauses. “Can you show me where you live?”

MJ shows him her knife.

He huffs. “No, like, the part of the-” -his face scrunches up- “-gate you live by? Not on the inside,” he hastens to explain, “but where you hear the fighting coming from?”

“And that’ll help because…”

He shrugs. “Might be clues?” At her flat expression he tries to defend himself. “Nobody wants to fight close to the gate because—well—it’s made of iron and nobody wants to be thrown into it. There has to be a reason there’s fighting close enough that you can hear them.”

“As much as I’d love to take you to where I live-”

“You came to where _I_ live-”

“-I need to go home,” she spoke over him. “It’s going to be dark soon and I won’t be able to sneak back in when the security’s strengthened. So, bye, thanks for not doing anything to me, although that’s a pretty low bar-”

Spidey bounces to his feet. “I’ll walk you back!”

She frowns.

“Aw, c’mon,” he whines. “There’s worse things than me that you could run into.”

MJ pointedly slides her knife into her sleeve. “I’ll be fine.”

Spidey pouts and flips onto a branch with a forlorn sigh, nearly the exact same upside-down position she first found him in. “Buh-bye, human girl.”

She snorts before she can stop herself. “Thanks for assuming I’m a girl, loser.”

“Oh how _rude_ of me. Can I have your pronouns?”

“Get your own pronouns!” she hollers over shoulder, picking her way through the felled trees.

“Hey!” he shouts, and she pauses to look at him. “Give me a promise that you’ll be back.”

“Nah,” she says, and spends the whole way home trying to imagine what he must really look like under his glamor, and how old he _really_ is.

* * *

“Ohmygod, that’s _so cool_.”

MJ shrugs, taking a sip of her tea. “I mean, he didn’t kill me so yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

Ned’s eyes go wide. “Oh, uh—yeah, very cool of him not to kill you, very cool…”

MJ hides her grin behind her cup. “So?”

“So? So what?”

“You wanna come see him?”

“You’re going back again?!”

“Why not?”

Ned fidgets with the edge of his plate. “Well…” he hedges.

“Ned.”

“It’s dangerous!” he bursts out. “Isn’t it? Yeah, _you’re_ okay, but you’re you. I just don’t know that I’d have the same chance of coming back.”

MJ nods. She kind of expected this. Ned’s great, and braver than he gives himself credit for, but he doesn’t always think as highly of himself as he should. He’s smart, and he knows it—thankfully not in an arrogant way—but he views MJ as much stronger than him. Like, she _is_ , she totally is, but he does that with a lot of people—just assumes that they’re stronger and better than him and stands down. It’s kind of concerning.

“I dunno MJ. It’s just risky.”

“Okay dork, how about this: you come with because I need some help, I get you some extra iron and protect you, then we come back to the city.”

Ned look at her in surprise. “You need my help?”

MJ rolls her eyes. Typical. “ _Yes_ , nerd, I need your help. You’re a better judge of character than me.”

“I mean, you’re really good at like, watching people.”

She presses her lips together. “Not so great at judging them, though. I just can’t get a read on him—he’s _fae_.”

Ned nods thoughtfully. “Okay. Let me get my hat.”

“Your… hat.”

“It gives me confidence.” Ned waves her away like he isn’t being ridiculous right now. He takes their paper cups and plates to the trash, because he’s thoughtful like that. They exit the café and head habitually towards the class building before switching courses and going to Ned’s house.

One of Ned’s moms asks them where they’re going in that way that moms do when they’re busy but still like to check in. Ned freezes up and MJ covers for them, saying that they’re just going to walk around and enjoy the weather. It looks like it might rain, but Ned’s mom is either too polite or too absorbed in her work to say anything.

They slip through the gates. Ned keeps glancing around every few seconds and MJ wants to kick him but that would be almost as suspicious as the furtive looks. 

Once the two are past the first few trees, hidden from the city, MJ whispers “Here,” and shoves a bracelet—the chain and tiny spherical charm both made of iron—into his hands. He puts it on gratefully, and they creep together through the trees, back towards where MJ first met Spidey. She really has no guarantee he’ll even be there, but it’s the only lead she’s got, so she trudges on.

“Whoa,” Ned whispers, eyes wide as he stares at the destruction. “You could’ve died.”

MJ shrugs, pretending to be unbothered. “I guess.”

He’s not there. Rather, the same fae that MJ met yesterday isn’t visibly there, but that doesn’t mean he’s not hiding in other ways.

“Spidey?”

Immediately, a fluffy brown-haired head pops out of the trees, startling Ned into screeching. The fae grins and lowers himself to be face-to-upside-down-face with Ned. He hangs from the tree by a string of some kind, but MJ isn’t interested in figuring out how something so fragile supports him.

“I’m back,” she tells him unnecessarily.

“And you brought a _friend_ ,” Spidey coos. He reaches down to vigorously shake Ned’s hand. “She calls me Spidey. Can I take _your_ name?”

MJ rolls her eyes. He’s not being subtle at all—even Ned recognizes the introduction for what it is: a trick.

“Hey dude.” Ned manages to pull his hand from Spidey’s grip and looks at her for guidance. She shrugs; he’s a smart boy, he can figure it out on his own. “Uh, you can’t take my name, but I go by Ned.”

Spidey doesn’t even seem disappointed that Ned doesn’t fall for it. He just swings back and forth gently from the thread, smile never faltering. “Nice hat,” he says.

Ned’s uncertain expression gives way to a pleased beam. “Thanks! It’s my favorite. It gives me confidence.”

“I can tell. I mean,” Spidey waves a hand around. “You’re all the way out here, aren’t you?”

Ned shrugs. “MJ needed help,” he says simply.

Spidey drops from the thread like a stone, tucking into a ball and rolling just before he hits the ground. He pops back up with a shit-eating grin, and MJ wants to _kick_ Ned. Honestly. “ _You_ need help?” He twirls on his feet and laughs. “Even though you have that knife you’re so fond of? Let me guess, let me guess—you brought him out here because you need help with… gardening.”

Ned hums, grinning a little. “Not gardening.”

 _Oh my god_.

“What about, uh, stargazing?”

“Getting closer!”

MJ looks to the cloudy, daytime sky. There are no stars. _Oh my god,_ she has two idiots now. How did they become friends so fast?— and make no mistake, Ned has definitely decided that Spidey’s a friend. Ned has clearly decided to trust him.

“She wants help with her sense of fashion.” Spidey plucks the hat off Ned’s head and tilts it onto his own. “Clearly you’re the master of that.”

MJ glares at him. “If you think you can pull that hat off then I’m _not_ the one who needs help with their style.”

“Not that your clothes aren’t, like, cool,” Ned assures as he takes his hat back. “I mean you’ve got those cool patches, and-”

Spidey smiles with his mouth closed. “They’re rags, I know. Not exactly a lot of fabric out here.” He waves his hands around before flopping onto the ground like it’s a feathered mattress and not, y’know, solid dirt and rock. “Actually though, what did you come back for? You reeeaaally didn’t seem happy to be hangin’ with me yesterday.”

Ned sits too, and tugs MJ down with him. “We can’t come just to chill?”

“Well-”

“I didn’t get the full story.” MJ cuts in, effectively stopping Spidey from being a smartass.

“The… full story.”

“Yeah, about the fighting?”

Spidey crosses his arms huffily. “Only reason you didn’t get a full story is ‘cause you left.”

MJ rolls her eyes. “Don’t be a baby, it was getting dark.”

“Ahhhh but life’s so much _fun_ when it’s dark.”

Infuriating. He’s terrible.

Ned butts in hesitantly. “It _is_ really dangerous for us to be out at night, though. There’s more…”

“More fae out and about?” Spidey flashes his sharp teeth in a vaguely terrifying mockery of his earlier grins. He’s tense for all of two seconds before his whole body relaxes against a tree, his eyes slipping closed and his lips turning up in a more peaceful smile. “It’s fine, we’ve got a bad rep. Y’know, with the whole… kidnapping and stealing thing.”

“Yeah that’s pretty terrible,” Ned agrees. He winces when MJ nudges him none-too-gently.

Spidey leans in and raises his eyebrows, ignoring the way MJ automatically leans back. “So,” he hums. “You wanna know what’s going on in the woods?”

MJ lifts her chin a little. _Duh_ , she thinks, but she holds off on saying it aloud.

“And you’re willing to make a deal with the fae to figure it out?”

She narrows her eyes. “Depends on the deal.”

He almost looks impressed by her. “How about… you promise that you’ll come back three times after I help you.”

“No more no less?”

He shrugs. “I mean, you could visit more if you wanted to, but yeah, no less.”

“Uh, am I included in this?” Ned asks, hesitantly raising a hand. “’Cause like, I’d be down to visit too,” he falters. “Y’know, if you want.”

Spidey’s whole face lights up in delight, his eyes seeming to glow amber with happiness. “Yes! That’d be— that’d be awesome!”

“Cool, cool…” Ned nods. “So like, do we have to shake hands, or…”

“Oh!” Spidey blushes, an oddly bright red color that might match his clothes if they were clean. “No, yeah, we can just all agree to it.”

Aren’t the fae supposed to be all about formality, and keeping to certain rules of politeness? Why is this one so… chill? MJ shakes that train of thought right out of her head. Fae are master manipulators; always trying to get humans to act a certain way so they can run off with their soul, or whatever fae do with people once they have them.

“Okay,” Ned says. “But like what if I want to shake hands?”

Spidey blinks. “We can shake hands if you want.”

It’s clear to MJ that Spidey and Ned have very different ideas of how a handshake should go. Spidey tries to gently punch Ned’s hand, while Ned goes for the classic handclasp. He ends up holding Spidey’s fist. When he tries to let go, Spidey grabs _his_ fist, apparently now convinced that that’s just how humans do it.

MJ doesn’t allow herself the luxury of rolling her eyes to the sky for answers. “Losers,” she grumbles, marching forwards and pulling their hands apart. “Figure this out later—oh my god.”

Spidey beams at her, one hand now wrapped around her fist, the other holding Ned’s. He pats their hands softly, looking pleased, then lets go. “Now I’ve agreed to help you, and you’ve agreed to visit me!” He whirls around, beckoning them to follow him in the vague direction of the city. He twists his head to look at MJ. “What’s god?”

She carefully steps over some kind of spikey plant. “Oh, it’s just a constructed entity created to give people something to believe—like that there’s an afterlife or a specific person who created everything. Most of the time though, it’s just an excuse to hurt other people over what kind of god they believe in.”

Spidey nods sagely. “Sound like god was made by fae.”

It startles a laugh out of her.

They walk until Spidey realizes he actually has no idea where they’re going, so MJ takes the lead. She does her best to keep them out of sight of anyone in the city while still keeping close enough that she can tell what part of the woods they’re in. Eventually, they reach the area MJ last saw the flashes of struggle. There’s a few fallen trees, scorched leaves, and skewer marks in the ground.

MJ kneels and touches one of the marks. It’s twisty, like a warped ice cream cone had been shoved into the ground. It looks, she realizes, like the horns on that goblin. It reminds her of something.

“What did you do with that goblin that was stuck in the tree?”

Spidey is crouched over one of the scorched areas, Ned leaning over his shoulder curiously. “Hm?”

“The goblin from the other day,” MJ says, frustrated. “What did you do with it.”

Spidey stands and shrugs. He’s looking at the treetops now, and MJ gets the feeling he’s avoiding her eyes. “Oh y’know, I just, uh, moved them.”

“That thing was massive, and you ‘just moved it’?”

He leaps into the tree and orients himself into the upside-down position that’s becoming a familiar sight. He runs his hands up and down the bark of the tree, like he’s looking for something, though he’s probably just avoiding the question.

“Spidey.”

“Yeah, yeah yeah, I just moved ‘em. I‘m stronger than I look.”

MJ exhales harshly. “Okay,” she says. “Where did you move it to?”

Spidey twists around in a move that would break any human’s back. He looks her in the eye and grins. “Around.”

MJ fingers her ring. _I could smack him_ , she muses. _Just one smack to set this little asshole straight_ . It’s not the nicest thought she’s ever had, but this boy is really testing her patience. Fae. This _fae_ is really testing her patience, and what did she expect? Tricksters and thieves to the bone—assuming fae have bones.

“Wait,” Ned breaks in, thank god. “You left it alive?”

Spidey hums, twisting back around to the trunk of the tree he hangs from. “I don’t like dead things.”

“Like ghosts?” Ned’s eyes go wide, and MJ privately wonders the same thing.

Spidey shakes his head, sticking his fingers into the cracks of the bark and prying it off. He studies it. “Like bodies.”

Ned and MJ exchange glances. It’s a bit more morbid than MJ would have expected from someone as sweet and normal-looking as Spidey; more like something she herself would say, though likely not in that context, but—that’s the fae.

Spidey flips back to the ground and lands in a crouch. MJ’s legs cramp just looking at him, but he settles into it like there isn’t a more comfortable way to sit. He’s still picking at the bark he’d pulled from the tree. “There wasn’t a fight here,” he says, like they aren’t surrounded by destruction.

Ned looks around, eyebrows furrowed. “It… kind of looks like there was a fight here, dude.”

Spidey shakes his head, adamant. “It looks like a fight, but there wasn’t one—not a real one, anyway.” He flaps his hands a little. “There’s no sign of any fae being here; just goblins.”

“You didn’t leave a sign when you fought that goblin the other day.” MJ points out.

“Yeah, well.” Spidey shrugs, grinning smugly. “I strive for perfection.” He shakes his head quickly. “Look, the point is that if the goblins were fighting something, it wasn’t fae.”

“They could’ve been fighting each other, right? I mean, I don’t know a whole lot about goblins, but they seem pretty…” Ned waves at the scorch marks and snapped trees. “Aggressive.”

Spidey bobs his head slowly. “I can’t be sure, but—I heard they’re not allowed to fight each other anymore, and this scene is pretty new, I think.”

MJ snorts. Everything out here in the woods is so lawless, what’s to stop the goblins from fighting whoever they please? The idea of the goblins obeying such an order is ridiculous, especially since she’s seen one of those things up close. She says as much to the dorks.

Spidey rubs at his wrists, looking almost nervous. “They have a king,” he says.

“And they _willingly_ follow a monarchy?”

“I dunno if they _have_ to or if they get a choice, but yeah, they have a king who’s orders they follow.”

“So? You think the goblins just staged a fight here to—what? Make it _seem_ like they’re fighting?”

Spidey shrugs. “You’re the one who wants to know what’s going on in the woods, what do you think?”

“You’re the one who _lives_ in the woods!”

Spidey huffs and looks away, his face the color of the bright, beautiful red berries that dot the forest. MJ’s sure they’re poisonous. Pretty things, she thinks, looking at the boy fae in front of her, are often poisonous.

“Okay” Ned says with what is probably forced optimism. It sounds genuine though, and MJ appreciates his efforts. “So we know there were goblins here, we know there _weren’t_ any fae here, and we know the goblins aren’t allowed to fight each other.” He ticks each point off on his fingers and looks up at them. “The goblins could be faking a fight because… I dunno man, maybe they’re just like that. But like, is there anything else they could’ve been fighting? What else lives in the woods?”

“For _some_ reason—” Spidey shoots MJ a look “—people come in the woods sometimes. Could be them.”

“How long do you think the fight lasted?”

Spidey gives the area a cursory once-over, despite the fact that he’d inspected it thoroughly not five minutes ago. “Dunno, but it wasn’t quick.”

“Most people don’t carry a knife like I do,” MJ muses. “I don’t think other people would’ve lasted long.”

Spidey raises his eyebrows and grins cheekily. “Other people don’t have me, you mean.”

She scowls at him.

“Not people then,” Ned says. “What else?”

“Believe it or not, there’s not a whole lot that lives here.” Spidey runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. “It isn’t exactly prime real estate, what with the hunk of cold iron right on the edge. There used to be a lot of vampires, but they sucked so we got rid of them.” His snicker sounds forced. “ _Sucked_.”

MJ sighs. “Nothing else?”

Spidey shakes himself a little, like he’d been using his brain and wasn’t happy about it. “I mean, I don’t think so. But then again, I’ve been told that I’m bad at paying attention, so maybe?”

“So we don’t know anything,” Ned concludes.

Spidey presses his lips together and shakes his head.

“It would be super helpful to have a goblin to question right about now,” MJ says. Ned gives her a look, like _I’d really rather not meet a goblin, thanks_ , but she has a plan now. A plan with a little more substance than “walk into the woods and hope there’s clues.”

The one good thing MJ knows about every fae is that they can’t lie. Hide the truth, sure. Obfuscate, confuse, and twist the truth so that it looks like something it’s not, yes. But outright lie? Not possible. People have blatantly lied to her face before; to get her attention, to scare her, to show someone else in a bad light. If there’s one aspect of the fae that MJ wishes humans had too, it was this one.

Spidey hunches in on himself, tense. If it were anyone else, MJ would say it was shame. For him, the motion seems like he’s readying for a fight. “Sure would,” he agrees easily. “What a _shame,_ we’re fresh out of goblins.”

MJ stalks closer, pressing Spidey against a tree as he tries to crab walk away from her. He’s pretty good at it, but he doesn’t seem inclined to scurry up the tree like he had before, so she boxes him in. “You had a goblin, and you moved it. Where?”

His eyes shift around, seeking out Ned, who shrugs as if to say _You’re on your own, dude_. “I told you, around.”

“Where?”

“They’re still in the woods, don’t worry. It’s not like I released them into the city or anything.”

MJ cracks her fingers, and the sparse light that smatters the area through the trees glints off her ring. “I’d like to question it.”

He scowls. “No.”

MJ narrows her eyes briefly, then shrugs. “Oh well. Back to the city I guess.” She pulls away from Spidey, turning back to Ned. “Come on.” She can hear Spidey shift against the tree, cloth catching on the rough bark, but she doesn’t try to steal another look at him.

“MJ,” Ned says nervously as she pulls him along. “What are we doing?”

“Don’t worry,” she says in the soft tone that’s kept her hidden from the people she’s observed. Louder, in the slightly accusatory voice that convinces loose lips to drop stories, she says, “They’re right when they say the deal always tilts in the fae’s favor. We’ve been taken advantage of, Ned. He’s got us coming back three more times, but he won’t even hold up his end of the deal. He said he’d help figure out what’s going on, but here we are, having to find a goblin all by ourselves.”

Ned’s confusion and inability to be discreet works in her favor. “Doesn’t that hurt fae? If they break their deal?”

There’s a solid _thump_ from behind them, and MJ smirks.

* * *

When Spidey said he moved the goblin, what he actually meant was that he’d left it in the tree to escape on its own. He _had_ moved the tree; just uprooted it like it was simple and replanted it deep in a slim hole in the ground.

Ned flinches at the sound of thrashing that emanates from the hole, fingers twisting the iron chain around his wrist. “It sounds… mad.”

Spidey grins, perched at the very edge of the hole. “Oh yeah,” he says smugly, tossing down a cluster of nuts he’d pulled from a tree. There’s the echoing sound of them clattering against something hard, then a furious howl. “What?” he says at Ned and MJ’s raised eyebrows. “They’ll die if they don’t have food.”

“Imprisonment isn’t exactly a better fate,” MJ murmurs, but she’s glad the goblin is still around to question. She peers over Spidey’s shoulder and—yep. That’s the goblin that attacked them. Its horns are still twisted deep into the tree, but the hole doesn’t provide it with enough room to free itself. “Hey you!”

It snarls.

She considers for a moment; to question and accuse subtly, or to outright demand answers? The goblin gives an enraged hiss, and she decides it’s probably not intelligent enough to pick up on anything less than obvious. “Why did you attack us the other day?”

Chunks of dirt break off the sides of the hole and slide further down at the goblin’s fit of shrieking and thrashing.

Spidey snickers and leans down further, just on the edge of the hole and nearly horizontal. “What’s the matter?” he taunts. “I thought you were smart enough to speak—though I wouldn’t be surprised if you forgot how, what with all the braincells I knocked outta you.”

“Um, maybe let’s not provoke the big angry monster?” Ned squeaks, stepping back.

The thing in the hole is completely silent; no violent snarls or sounds of movement come from within. Then, it laughs: a terrible thing to hear, not unlike the sound of metal knives scraping across ceramic plates. The goblin breathes, then all the air whooshes out of it, sounding like the warning of a rattlesnake. MJ tenses and slides her knife into her hand.

“Why did you attack us?” she demands again. “What have you been fighting?”

The goblin speaks, its voice pitched high and warbling like two instruments out of tune with each other. “’Why did you attack us,’ says the squishy human, as though she’s not young enough to be the most wonderfully juicy meal I’ve had in ages. ‘Why did you attack us,’ she wonders as though her skin doesn’t beg my claws to pull it apart. ‘Why-‘”

“Enough!” Spidey hisses, and for the first time MJ sees part of his glamor slip; his skin darkening around his eyes. He hisses down at the goblin, his easy perch growing tense. She can’t see what he does, but it sounds like the twang of a rubber band—a _thwip_ noise that causes the goblin to scream. He stands from his crouch and smirks, glamor falling completely back into place.

MJ looks at Ned to find him wide-eyed. He doesn’t seem afraid—at least not of Spidey. If anything, he seems afraid _for_ Spidey. He glances at her and mouths _badass_ , looking impressed.

“How about,” Spidey says, and her attention snaps back to him where he paces around the hole. “I make you a deal? You answer her questions—any question she asks—truthfully, and I’ll let you out of this hole.”

“Spidey-” Ned gasps, but he goes quiet at the hand waved frantically from behind Spidey’s back.

The goblin pauses for a minute, its mutters bouncing against the walls of the hole, before coming to a decision. “You’ll let me out?”

From where she stands, MJ can see the way Spidey grins, his lips pulled back to show his sharp teeth. “Have you ever known a fae not to hold up their end of the deal?”

The goblin grumbles but formally accepts. “What do you want to know, little human?”

MJ steps forward. It’s redundant to ask why they were attacked, she decides. It makes sense that the goblin wanted to eat her, gross as the thought is. “Have goblins been pretending to fight?”

The goblin shrieks with rage. “Yes,” it spits out after much clawing and teeth-gnashing.

She leans over the hole a bit and catches a glimpse of yellow, hate-filled eyes before jerking back. “Why? What purpose does it serve to fake fights?”

“Why you-” the goblin’s words devolve into a series of growls and what surely must be curses in its own language.

Spidey hisses again.

“Yes, yes, I’ll answer, I’ll answer!”

The goblin does not answer.

“Hello?”

MJ leans over the hole again to see the goblin desperately clawing at the tree, struggling to free itself even a little. “Hey!” she says. “ _Why_ _are you faking fights_?”

It screams. “To get your attention!”

She blinks. “My attention?”

“ _Human_ attention.”

Ned frowns and comes closer. He gulps when he catches sight of the goblin in the hole, but bravely stays. “But… why would you want human attention?”

The goblin cackles. “Why _would_ we want to lure humans away from that great iron cage that keeps them safe from us?”

MJ narrows her eyes. It adds up, but… “Why do you want human attention?”

Ned frowns at her. “I just asked that,” he whispers, but she shakes her head sharply.

The growling of the goblin sounds more horrible than ever; like the thudding of a bass drum hidden underneath children’s muffled screams. “ _Human_!” it screams. “You terrible, clever human! When I am freed…” it tapers off into a hissing whisper. “When I am freed, nothing will stop me from tearing your flesh to ribbons and using your bones to play the songs of my people!”

Spidey _ripples_ , his form wavering like a mirage. MJ wonders if she’ll be able to see his true age, but he digs his nails into his arms and settles. He stalks forward, eyeing the hole as though he intends to fill it in and bury its contents.

MJ smirks. “I don’t hear a truthful answer,” she says.

Spidey stops, his mouth forming an ‘o.’

She thinks of the times she’s sat at Ned’s house while one of his moms flit around, scolding them for laughing at the way Flash had set out to humiliate someone and mocked himself instead. “It’s not nice to take pleasure in the pain of others,” she’d say, pulling gently on Ned’s ear as she passed. MJ doesn’t feel guilty about enjoying the goblin’s screaming; she’s rather smug at having gotten the drop on it.

Spidey lets her bask for about three seconds before growing impatient with the goblin’s wordless sounds. He leans over the hole again, and this time she can see that he shoots _something_ from his wrist down at the goblin, creating the _thwip_ sound. “I think she asked you a question,” he says, looking at her to raise his eyebrows and grin.

“Alright!” the goblin howls. “We need a human!”

MJ frowns. “For what?”

“To figure out how you _do_ it.”

The goblin is being evasive on purpose. Fine. She knows how to get the answers she wants, but whether it’ll be like picking flowers or pulling teeth is up to the goblin. “Do what?”

“Iron!” the goblin hisses out. “It does _nothing_ to you! It burns and breaks our skin and yet you sit there and adorn yourself with it! We _need_ that ability.”

Ned has circled the hole by now and stands just behind Spidey. He squints at her, mouths _what for?_

MJ isn’t interested in that just yet. “How do you plan to resist iron by capturing a person?”

The goblin cackles, enraged. “We’ll learn how you do it, no matter how many humans it takes. Once we know how to wield iron painlessly we’ll _finally_ be able to… to…” it fumbles and tries to change tactics. “We’re going to experiment on humans!”

“Why do you want to wield iron? To have more power against humans?” Spidey looks at her like she’s an idiot and whispers “ _Obviously_ ,” but she ignores him. He’s helping with the investigation, which is nice, but _she’s_ conducting the interrogation. Resisting iron is one thing, it makes sense to try to take away one of the greatest weapons that can be used against them; but wanting to _wield_ it is quite another.

_“To destroy the fae!”_

Spidey’s mouth falls open, then he balls his hands into fists and his eyes narrow to slits. His lip curls and his teeth seem longer than usual, glinting dangerously in the light that smatters through the tree leaves. He’s very still for one, two, _three_ seconds, and then—

“I’m letting you out of the hole now.”

Spidey tilts his head and meets her eyes, pushing Ned further behind him. She gets the message.

From behind a tree, she and Ned watch as Spidey _thwips_ and _yanks_ the goblin straight out of the hole. The goblin screams as its horns are pulled abruptly free from the tree they’d been caught in. It lands with a _whump_ and scrambles to its feet, howling all the while about how the fae promised to let it go. Spidey grins that awful grin with all his sharp, sharp teeth.

“Don’t you know not to make a deal with the fae?” he asks, voice like venom. “I only promised to let you _out_ .” He dances around the goblin, _so_ graceful on his toes and MJ pulls Ned a little closer—not that she would admit it. Spidey _thwips_ again, pulling the goblin right off its feet. He spins, twirling like a madman and dragging the goblin for the ride. His grip on the—string? —loosens as the goblin is swung in wider and wider arcs.

Ned gasps suddenly and tugs MJ a few more trees away. She quietly complains about not being able to see, but Ned hushes her frantically. She sees why when Spidey lets the goblin slam into the tree they’d just been hiding behind, pulling it and its roots right out of the ground.

“Shit,” MJ says.

“Shit,” Ned agrees, eyes shining.

There’s a couple of _thunk_ ing noises, then Spidey calls for them to come out.

He’s perched back above the hole, smiling thinly with his lips closed. The goblin isn’t visible until they get close enough to peer down into the dirt.

The goblin’s lumpy green head is slumped against the sides of the hole, its horns skewered through a completely different tree. It’s knocked out.

“Sorry,” Spidey says after a long silence. “That I… lost it, and that you can’t ask more questions.”

Ned grins, practically bouncing. “Dude that was super badass!”

“And violent.” MJ adds.

Spidey huffs. “ _You’re_ the one who wanted to kill them!”

MJ shrugs. “Yeah, and?”

Two faces gape at her.

“Dude…” Ned whispers.

“I don’t kill,” Spidey says blankly. “I made a promise—a deal,” he corrects himself. “So now I don’t.”

MJ decides to leave that alone. “We got some good information regardless,” she says. “But it’s getting late. We need to head home-”

“-But you’ll visit again!”

“-so I can take notes on what we’ve learned. We’ll be back tomorrow; hopefully one of us will have an idea of where to look next.” She tries to sound cool and apathetic, but MJ’s very pleased with how this whole thing has turned out so far. She’s gotten some of the information she’s come for— threats to her home—and best of all she hasn’t died even a little bit—it’s like solving a murder mystery, but nobody’s been murdered yet!

Ned scrambles, looking to his wrist like the iron chain will grant him knowledge of how late it is. MJ knows he lost his watch three months ago, but he has yet to remember that. “Yeah dude, we’ll be back,” he says, grinning brightly. He offers his hand to Spidey, who uncertainly goes to fist bump him. Their fingers tangle for a second, because they still haven’t figured the handshake thing out apparently, and MJ rolls her eyes. “See you later!”

Spidey looks at her.

“I’m not doing whatever the hell you losers pulled off with your hands just now,” she tells him.

He looks hopeful “What about-”

“Nah.” She offers a peace sign as she turns around to catch up with Ned. If not for his presence, it would be eerily similar to the way she left the woods last time.

* * *

 _Goblins want humans for iron resistance_ -> _Goblins want iron resistance to defeat the fae._

MJ frowns at her notes, then at a book for older children, entitled: _Creatures of Magic and Myth: stories to protect children from being stolen by the Others_. It speaks of fairly watered-down versions of various magical creatures (though some of them must be specific to other regions; they never get harpies on their part of the land), but all the information is pretty accurate, if a little outdated.

 _Fae-kind are the only creatures for whom iron is excruciatingly painful, though this is especially true of those with the designation ‘faerie_ ; _’ those with humanlike features, oftentimes wings, and a specific skill set that involves making deals, an inability to lie, and some amount of magic._

MJ moves down a couple lines on the page to scribble some speculation.

_Goblins are also hurt by iron- > related in some way to the fae? _

She doesn’t know a whole lot about goblins—she didn’t even know there were any in the woods, which is a bit of a blow to her pride in her observational skills—but she thinks she’d remember if they were similar to fae. What does it mean anyway, that this group of goblins want to destroy the fae rather than eat humans? Is it a family feud of some kind?

And which side should she be on, against fae or against goblins, if she’s even allowed to pick? One took her dad, and the other seems intent on capturing humans now.

She huffs. Ned definitely likes Spidey, so that’s enough for her. For now.

She flips back a couple pages in her notebook, to the notes she’d started yesterday on Spidey himself. They’re dismally sparse, so she’s glad she picked up a few key points of interest today.

- _hibernates? (has done so fifteen times, though that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s fifteen. He’s probably older)_

_-raised himself?_

- _doesn’t like to kill_

_-informal, especially with deals_

_-wants to be visited, probably so he has more time to trap us or something_

_-likes to be upside-down_

_-magic wrist strings?_

_-very interested in tricking the goblin- > not interested in tricking us? _

(It’s important to keep notes on a fae you’ve made a deal with. They could be dangerous—it’s a good thing she’s been paying attention. It’s not because he’s interesting or pretty anything. It’s just to make sure she can protect herself and Ned, that’s all.)


	2. Chapter 2

“Heeeeeeey Mrs. Jones!”

MJ looks up from her book—the journal of a traveler who documented everything she discovered about intelligent magical species—at Ned’s voice and frowns. She glances at the clock. Six thirty— _way_ too early for the dork to be up and out.

“Ned,” MJ’s mom says, voice neither warm nor cold. “To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?”

MJ’s mom has always been rather… blank. Some people twitter behind their hands about the _poor dear, ever since the fae stole her husband_ —but MJ knows better. Mrs. Jones was born into the world strong and uncontrolled by emotion, and she’s always done her best to help MJ do the same. It’s a rare gift, but MJ’s appreciated having a parent that thinks beyond their feelings about their child. It’s allowed MJ far more personal freedom than most people she knows.

MJ pictures Ned gulping at her mom as he’s done so many times before. She’s a stark contrast to Ned’s moms, and it’s always been kind of funny how afraid of Mrs. Jones he is. “I was just coming to pick MJ up to… work on a project! For classes!”

“What a reasonable time to work on a project.”

“Ah-ha, yep, that’s because… MJ is a very reasonable person. It was her idea.”

“I see.”

MJ gathers her book, notebook, and a few pencils to take out today as her mom comes into the room to look at her.

“School project?”

MJ nods. “I want to get a head start.”

Her mom watches her closely. “That’s smart.”

“I try to be.” MJ shrugs her bag over her shoulder. “We’ll be back later!”

Ned stays tense until they get a few blocks from her house. “Dude,” he gasps. “Your mom is scary.”

She glances at him.

“Scary… awesome, is what I was gonna say.”

MJ punches his shoulder. “Don’t sweat loser, I’m messing with you. Seriously though, what are we doing out so early?”

Ned brightens. “Well, I was thinking about the deal, right? And I figure if Spidey wants extra time to trick us—and I gotta be honest, I don’t think he does—maybe we can bring gifts or something to appease him ahead of time!”

She squints. “Not bad.”

Ned bobs his head, smug. “Right? Anyways,” he pulls them around a corner away from the main streets of the city. “I think we can find some cool stuff at the pawn shop-”

“What? What would a fae want with something from the pawn shop?”

“…Action figures?”

She scoffs. “Fae like shiny things, Ned. Like crystals.”

“Okay, but where are we supposed to get a crystal? C’mon MJ, the pawn shop is kinda the only place we can afford.”

Unfortunately, he’s right.

They separate to wander the shelves, and MJ keeps of a mental list of anything a fae might accept. That bright beaded necklace, a rusted flowery pin, a couple of new marbles. She sighs. Gift-giving has never been her forte.

Ned walks by, humming, his hands full of little trinkets. She frowns. “You want to give him clothes?”

“You saw what he was wearing, besides,” he grins, holding up the shirt. “Look! There’s a pun on it!”

She blinks.

“ _Spidey_ ’ll find it funny.” Ned folds the shirt back over his arm, huffing. “Fine, what do you think of this?”

She studies the little figure he drops into her hands. Honestly, she thought he’d been joking about action figures, but this actually seems like it might be a good idea. The figure is an unpainted silver, and though there’s a few creases that are tarnished it’s surprisingly clean and shiny. This particular figure was clearly modeled after fae, with long, delicate limbs that are just a little disjointed. It wears a sleeveless gown that seems to swish around with wind, long hair following the movements. It’s pretty, and exactly the kind of thing a fae might admire.

“Yeah, this one’s good.”

He claps. “Great! I have one more idea, but I think you should take a look first.” He leads her over to a corner with stacks of dusty jars.

“No.”

“Oh c’mon! Fae like sugary things, right?”

“Ned, this candy is _really_ old. I doubt it’ll still be sweet.”

He deflates. “Okay. Anything you saw?”

She sighs. “Unless you count _fake_ crystals a good gift, then no.”

Ned shakes his head, smiling. “I think we’ve got enough anyway.” They make their way to the counter, but Ned pulls her behind a shelf before they can reach the cashier. “I actually do like him,” he admits. “I know fae are supposed to be like that, and you can’t trust them _ever_ , but he really does seem nice.”

She gives him a look. “…okay, that’s great Ned? I’ll watch out for you so you can lower your guard and be friends.”

He huffs. “I think you can let your guard down too. What?” he asks at her snort. “You wanted me to come see if he was all bad, and he’s not, sooooooo?”

“So?”

“ _So_ , we can both be friends with him.”

The problem is that MJ knows where Ned’s coming from. They’d both been loners before they were friends, though it had been a choice on MJ’s part. Ned’s a genuinely good person, and he’d been drawn to similarly good people. The problem was that, while there were several good people their age in the city, they lived on the farthest side of the city, or went to different classes, and Ned never got a chance to hang out with them. The kids he was regularly exposed to weren’t exactly… nice to him, mostly due to Flash’s constant taunts and comments about his moms, his body, his happiness—anything he thought would pull Ned down. When he’d found MJ sketching on her own just a block from his house, he’d sat down and chatted her ear off until she agreed to be friends. She’d _never_ say it, but he became the person she woke up looking forwards to seeing.

Despite the fact that they have each other, the idea of having another friend is a beautiful, glowing thought.

MJ looks away from him, out the cloudy front window of the shop. “He’s just interesting because he’s fae. I don’t want to be friends with him.”

Ned eyes her. “Right. Well, I’m gonna get these. Meet you outside?”

“Sure.”

They don’t talk when they walk to the gate, taking back roads and slipping between buildings so it isn’t obvious where they’re going.

* * *

They find Spidey crouched in the regular clearing, his back to them. He’s softly humming, and his arms move in steady, rhythmic motions. It reminds MJ of knitting, maybe, or sewing.

“Hey dude!” Ned says cheerfully. “We brought you something!”

“What a coincidence!” Spidey laughs and deftly turns around.

The first thing that strikes MJ are the numerous spiders crawling over him. They’re kind of obvious; the dark shades of the spiders’ bodies standing out against Spidey’s pale skin. Despite the cluster of spiders swarming him, he seems at ease. He’s not knitting, but rather doing something that looks like weaving, if one could weave without a loom; silvery strands twist over and under his fingers, creating a jagged, circular pattern. The thread must be the spiders’ silk, because she can’t see where it comes from.

“Um,” Ned says. “You kinda got something…” he gestures to his arms and face. “…everywhere.”

Spidey tilts his head. A large yellow-black spider creeps up his cheek, coming to rest under one of his eyes. “They’re friends.” He smiles, and nods gently to the space between his torso and one of his arms. Several spiders have built interlocking webs there, scuttling up and down the threads importantly. MJ notices that Spidey’s own web-weaving doesn’t jostle his arm enough to pull apart the spiders’ webs.

“Spiders aren’t usually so… social.” Okay, all those spiders unnerve her just a _little_ bit. So what? She’s allowed to hate the idea of them crawling inside her mouth or ears or nose and laying their eggs inside her body-

“Some of us are.” Spidey looks at her with a wicked grin, like he knew the dark turn her thoughts had taken.

“Us?”

“Us,” Spidey parrots, the littlest of spiders crawling down his nose to situate itself in the corner of his mouth. Ned shivers. Spidey looks pleased by this. He eases out of his crouch to sit against the nearest tree. “You brought me something?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah, we did.” Ned shuffles closer, MJ behind him (and pretending this is a coincidence). “Can you-” he waves a hand. “-like, ask your… friends to leave?”

Spidey grins that sharp-toothed, teasing grin. All at once, the spiders making themselves at home on his body flee, spreading into the grass and trees. An unusually large spider takes its time crawling out from under his shirt, up his neck, and onto the tree he’s resting on.

MJ watches it go. “Creepy.”

Spidey seems to have forgotten about the spiders already, leaning forwards and making grabby hands at Ned. He gasps when he sees the shirt, rubbing his fingers up and down the fabric excitedly. He freezes when Ned flips the shirt over, showing him the little joke embroidered on the front. He traces over the letters G L A M O R O U S. It wasn’t intended to be a pun, but in this context-

“I _love_ it!” Spidey throws himself onto Ned, taking the shorter boy by surprise and wrapping his arms and legs around him. For a second, it looks like there’s a few too many arms there, but MJ blinks and can’t see them anymore.

Ned pats him on the back. He tries to pull back, but Spidey clings stubbornly. MJ can’t see Ned’s face, but she imagines his round-cheeked grin and smiles involuntarily. “Hey dork,” she says, saving him from a fate where he’s forever trapped by the fae—and not in the way that people usually are. “That’s not the only thing.”

Spidey finally releases Ned and looks up at her with wide eyes. “There’s _more_?” he says, like receiving two gifts in a day is unthinkable. For him, it probably is.

Ned nods and waves MJ to sit on the ground with them. “This one’s from MJ,” he says, ignoring MJ’s squint and producing the figure from his hat.

Open-mouthed, Spidey turns to her. “ _You_ got me something?” His eyes glitter.

She rolls her eyes to avoid looking at him. “Yeah, whatever. A present from me and a present from him”

He rubs the figure delicately, mouth stretching to show strangely flat teeth— strangely _human_ teeth. The figure glints as he holds it in the sparse sunlight, spinning it around in his hands so it appears to dance. He looks at Ned and MJ, eyes warm. “Beautiful.” His eyes dart down for half a second then back up to them, even as he strokes the figure’s long hair delicately. He leans forwards, eyes scrunching up with his smile. “The _prettiest_.”

It doesn’t feel like he’s talking about the figure.

He jumps up suddenly, flying straight up into the nearest tree faster than most athletes run. He’s back on the ground in an instant, tugging his new shirt over his head and the figure gone from his hands.

“It’s kind of funny, you bringing me presents and all, because… I kind of made you something as well.”

MJ’s immediately alarmed. Trinkets from the fae always come with a price, and she doesn’t care to let him have anything over her. Well, anything _more_ than the visits she’s already agreed to, that is. “That’s okay, we didn’t expect anything in return-”

Spidey’s voice goes cold, sharp, and strictly controlled. “I have accepted your gifts as they are. It would be impolite of me to try to pay you back for something you freely gave, and I intend to give the same to you, connected in no way to the gifts I just received.”

Ned gives her a look. “We… definitely didn’t mean to imply that.”

Spidey relaxes. “So you’ll accept them?”

MJ squints. “What are you giving us?” she asks warily.

Spidey clears his throat and straightens. “This is a gift. I promise. I neither expect nor require anything in return as payment. I give this freely to the humans Ned and MJ.” He cracks a grin. “No strings attached. Metaphorically, I mean. Physically, there’s strings around the neck but that’s to, y’know, wear it. Not to choke you or anything. Uh-”

He presents them with necklaces. The chain seems to be the same spider silk he’d been working with earlier, twisted into a strong braid. The charm attached carries the theme; a tiny red spider encased in clear resin, its legs bunched close to its body. The charm is hardly bigger than her thumbnail.

She feels anxious eyes on her. “Do you like them?”

Ned happily puts his around his neck. “It’s _awesome_.”

MJ is a little more hesitant. “These spiders are dead, right? They aren’t gonna find a way to crawl out?”

Spidey wrinkles his nose at her. “Yes?”

“Yes they’re dead, or-”

“Yes, they’re dead and they’ll stay in there.”

She huffs a sigh of relief and puts the necklace on, tucking the trapped spider under the neck of her shirt. It would be worse to refuse a gift and offend him than to just accept something he explicitly said was a gift. The weight of it is actually kind of nice.

Clapping, Spidey stands smoothly. “What’s the plan today?” His face goes pink when he glances at Ned rubbing the spider charm.

Interesting.

MJ hoists herself to her feet, leaning briefly against a tree at a sudden dizziness. Weird. She’s never been one to get a head rush when she stands. Shaking it off, she pulls her notebook out of her bag, flipping to the note she’d made last night. “I don’t suppose that goblin is still around?”

Ned grimaces and pulls himself up, using Spidey to steady him. “Don’t tell me you have more questions?”

She taps at the page. “Yes, but not for them.”

Spidey blinks. “Who else is there?”

“Well, you. And the goblin’s king.”

Spidey rears back, face twisting. “You’re staying _away_ from the Goblin King.”

“I know the goblins seem kind of rough,” Ned says, wrapping a gentle hand around Spidey’s tight fist. “But what’s he done aside from like, eat people that’s so bad?”

Spidey’s jaw tightens, and MJ gets an idea. “Giving us answers means we won’t try to seek him out,” she coaxes. “Open up a little.”

Spidey brings his other hand up to rub Ned’s hand on his own absent-mindedly, the motion loosening his shoulders. “Trying to get my life story three days into a relationship?” he jokes, a smile pulling weakly at his lips. He sighs. “Information costs a lot, you know.”

Ned tugs him back to the ground, despite the fact that they’d literally just gotten up. “We can tell you about ourselves too,” he soothes, ignoring MJ’s mildly panicked squint. “An equal trade of stories.”

Spidey looks up, looking so, so tired. There’s bruises under his eyes, and his eyebrows draw closer to the line etched between them. “That’s a big deal,” he warns. “Things close to your heart are worth more than almost anything.”

Draping himself across Spidey like a fainting maiden, Ned says in an awful falsetto, “ _You’re_ close to my heart.”

Eyes wide, Spidey leans back. Ned collapses into his lap without the extra support and Spidey pushes him away, leaping into the trees. His voice floats down, though it’s hard to make out through his coughs.

MJ pulls Ned up, who looks stupefied and a little upset. “Loser,” she calls up. “We can’t understand you.”

There’s an angry, clicking sort of sound, and Spidey’s head peers down at them. The bruises under his eyes have darkened, and curiously spread so it looks like he’s wearing thick eyeliner. His pointed ears are tipped with a bright red, and when he smiles nervously his teeth are sharp and dangerous once again. “Don’t worry about it. I just… If you really want to trade stories, we can’t do it here.”

“Why not?” asks Ned, a note of offense in his voice.

Spidey flinches. “There’s always someone listening.”

 _How ominous_ , MJ thinks dryly. Aloud, she says, “Well where else can we go? It’s not like we can take you back to the city.”

He grins.

* * *

“I DO NOT LIKE THIS!”

Ned screeches with delight. “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” He hollers over the rushing wind. “THIS IS _AWESOME_.”

Spidey cackles and does a flip. MJ screams as her head comes dangerously close to brushing the rock face they’re swinging along. She squeezes her legs around Spidey’s hips and presses her face into his neck. The… “webbing” that he wrapped around her and Ned to help them hold on doesn’t feel _nearly_ as secure as she’d like. She screams again when her stomach flops. The boys, lunatics that they are, hoot with laughter.

Ned’s arm pats her shoulder, and she shudders to think that he’s comfortable enough to release his grip on Spidey even a little. “IT’LL BE OKAY, MJ!”

“ALMOST THERE!” Spidey calls, far too cheerful for the death defying stunts he’s pulling.

When they finally land, MJ shakily tries to pull the webbing away, but Spidey easily tears it off. She wobbles away to sit down, stare at the sky, and try to figure out where she went wrong. It’s possible it was when she allowed herself to be strapped to a fae with her best friend, knowing full well that particular fae’s preference for dangling from trees, but more likely she was doomed to her fate the moment she went to the woods seeking answers.

Ned stumbles, collapsing against Spidey and giggling madly. “Dude,” he pants, wheezy from the yelling he’d done on the wild swing over. “That was… the _coolest_ … thing… _ever_.”

Spidey beams, the little shit. “It’ll be even better on the way back-”

“Nope,” MJ sits up, pointing a trembling finger at the both of them. “I am _never_ doing that again.”

Spidey wiggles in glee. “Only one way out!”

MJ hadn’t paid much attention on the way over, too busy being _scared shitless_ , but she thinks it’s a poor design to live somewhere only accessible by swinging through the trees like some kind of fairy Tarzan. Actually, it’s a brilliant design for being alone, which MJ respects, but that doesn’t mean she can’t hate it with a passion.

Unfortunately, Spidey’s probably right when he says there’s only one way out. They’re surrounded on all sides by massive rocks, covered in moss and tall enough that they break the treetops. Plants grow thickly in between the stones, providing cover and hiding the area. Sun peeks through a few scant areas, catching on gossamer threads that decorate every available place. She hates to admit it, but it’s kind of pretty, in a mysterious-forest-creature way.

Pushing Ned to stand on his own, Spidey nods his head to a dark hole near a corner. “C’mon.”

“What, you want to go _further_ into the rocks?”

He shrugs, grinning cockily over his shoulder. “Yeah, problem?”

Ned follows, eyes shining, so MJ has no choice but to go with them. She grabs Ned’s hand to keep track of where he is, definitely _not_ for comfort. Something skitters over her skin when they begin to crawl and she suppresses a yell. This stinks of a trap; why couldn’t she have seen it sooner? Too intent on getting answers, so fixed on _knowing_ that she blindly followed a fae. Like the spiders he named himself after, Spidey pulled them in, mesmerizing her and enchanting Ned and now he’s got their souls-

They tumble into an open space, and something lights up, bright blue-white light in crisscrossing, cobwebbed patterns.

“Oh, _wow_ ,” Ned gasps.

 _He’s got the right idea_ , MJ thinks, awed. They must be deep in the rocks, having crawled under cracks and into crevices for what felt like ages. Surely a place so far from any natural light must be dank, moldy, and disgusting. And yet… it isn’t. The few webs she’d noticed above ground cover every surface here, and they illuminate the space with their luminescence. A strange faint purple glow emanates from the rocks themselves, and all the spiders that make themselves home here glow in neon blues and yellows and greens.

A thick curtain, glowing like the spiderwebs, hangs on one side of the space, separating it into two parts. On this side, there are shelves carved into the rock, cluttered with knick-knacks and shiny trinkets. The figure they’d brought Spidey earlier glints, a web hanging off it like it’s always been here. Strange bundles are hung from the ceiling in such a way that it would be impossible to bump into them. A few boxes are stacked away in one corner, clearly taken from humans. Beyond the curtain, she can see more shelves and a dark space that looks like it may lead to another room.

Spidey has perched himself on a lump of fabric that acts like a chair, looking at them expectantly. The light washes over his face, lighting his eyes and glinting off his teeth. He looks different here, though she supposes that’s to be expected. Most people look different in their own home, especially when that home is the center of their power like it probably is for him. His glamor is thinner, the shadows around his eyes back and his hair defying gravity unabashedly.

MJ flops onto another fabric bundle. It’s lumpy, but more comfortable than she expected. “Nice place, loser,” she says, like she isn’t itching to sketch the cave.

He bounces. “Does this mean you’ll take me to your place?”

She laughs. That’s a no, but she doesn’t want to say anything concrete just yet.

Ned cushions himself on the last lump of fabric. She doesn’t remember seeing it when they came in, but there it is. “You live here?” he asks, admiration emanating from him.

Spidey shrugs. “This is pretty much just where I store my stuff. And sleep, I guess.”

MJ tilts her head critically. “You don’t invite the other fae here?”

His smile fades. “Not…exactly.”

“Not exactly?”

“Why don’t you tell me about your parents, first?”

Ah. This is part of the trade.

“My dad got taken by the fae when I was… six? I think he was nice, but I really only remember that he worked a lot. Security, before the gate was built.” MJ does her best to sound indifferent, like it doesn’t bother her. “My mom’s a professor at the school for higher learning. She teaches a more in-depth history of our area than we learn in our classes. She’s pretty…”

“Scary?” Ned offers.

“Collected,” MJ corrects. “Calm. Things don’t bother her.”

Spidey leans forward, tucking his hands under his chin. There’s a pause. “That’s it?”

“That’s it what?”

“Well, where’s the- where’s the storytelling, the romance, the intrigue!”

She frowns. “That’s life.”

“I’ll give you a good story,” Ned butts in eagerly. And he does. He tells of the grand romance between his mom, the baker, and his other mom, the master craftsman of jewelry. How they both gave each other increasingly dramatic gestures, traditional bracelets from the city one came from and elaborate confectionaries from the other. How they celebrated their marriage by leaving the town they’d met in and travelling to the city they live in now. Ned throws his arms out when he tells them how his moms met a witch, and how they begged him for a child. He stops here.

“I don’t actually know what happened after that,” he tells them sheepishly. “They just tell me that the witch got a little mad at them and cursed them, but they still ended up with me so I shouldn’t ask questions about it.”

Spidey snickers. “Now that’s a tale for the storybooks.”

MJ shoves him. She’d shifted throughout Ned’s story, leaning comfortably on the soft fabric with her knees tucked up close to her body. “Your turn.”

He huffs, as though hoping they’d forgotten he was to tell them about himself too. “What exactly do you want to know?”

“Oh, lots of things. Why other fae don’t visit you, why the goblins have a problem with the fae-”

“What’s your favorite color—mine’s red—”

“-and why you don’t seem to have a problem with us?”

Spidey sits up as much as he can, planting his feet and leaning towards them. The blue-white light of the webs sends ripples across his face. “I like red too,” he says, almost shyly. “And as for the rest…”

* * *

“It started when I was born. Probably. I don’t know when else to start. I was alone when I hatched, I remember that much-”

“Hatched!?”

“Yeah. I guess it was easy to just leave a sack of webbing in the forest and be on your way.”

“What the _fu_ -”

“I really didn’t know I had parents at all for… like ten years, at least. I was just on my own, y’know? I didn’t know about life or other people or family. I had spiders, and that was pretty much it. I guess I ran into other fae, and there were a couple of- of nagas and gnomes in that forest, but it was mostly empty. The older fae taught me some things, how to make people believe something false without actually lying, and making deals, but I decided to learn about myself on my own after a while. Uh, I made too many mistakes when they taught me, so they started getting meaner until I just didn’t want to be around them anymore. The nagas taught me to be quick, but that’s because they liked hunting me around. The gnomes were honestly the best of them. They tried to tell me how- how magic and stuff worked, but theirs was so different from mine it didn’t really go well…”

“How did you get away from that forest?”

“Oh yeah, uh- people started settling nearby, and there was this one couple that always came right near the edge of the woods. There were always flowers where they’d been, so I guess they were planting there. I liked watching them. They were, y’know, nicer than pretty much _anyone_ I’d met before. This one time some of the other fae were doing something near there, so I just kinda… sat in a tree to make sure they didn’t mess with the humans. They didn’t that day, but they definitely noticed the people and started making plans to do something. I ended up living in that tree so I could always be on guard. The couple noticed me once. They were nice to me too. I didn’t know humans could be nice to fae. I didn’t- I didn’t know _fae_ could be nice, but… they taught me how. To be nice, I mean.

“The others did go after the humans. May and Ben—that’s- those were their names.”

“Were?”

“…”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it.”

“ _Ned_.”

“No, it’s—yeah, I’ll get there. Don’t worry. Um. So. They went after May and Ben and I told them to fu- to back off. It got pretty… heated. I kinda thought they’d killed me after a while, because I’d never properly fallen asleep outside of winter before. But then I woke up, and I was in this—in this wagon, away from the forest. May was next to me, and she- she- she asked me how I’d feel about living with her and Ben.”

“No _way_.”

“That’s what I thought! But she was being serious! I mean, I said yes of course, and she told me we were moving away from the forest and the town that was being built there. “Partially to get away from those nasty fae,” she told me, “but also because the town doesn’t want a fae living amongst them.” Which, yeah. I get that. She said that there probably weren’t any cities that would be happy with a fae, so they were going to visit a witch.”

“Gotta be careful with those witches, man.”

“It turned out fine, actually. We ended up trading a couple of—well, it doesn’t matter. But-”

“Ohhh no, I’ve _got_ to hear what you traded.”

“Well, it’s just, you know, like-”

“Oh my _god_.”

“Okay fine, the witch wanted my- some of my hair, and one of my fingernails in exchange for the spell. It’s gross, I know! Stop making that face! _You’re_ the one who asked! You know what, I’m just gonna move on. So the spell was kind of like my glamor? Just… more powerful. It- it actually changed me. Not completely, but… I could touch iron. It still hurt, yeah, but it didn’t _burn_ like it usually does. We ended up living in this city here. You guys- winter is _awesome_. I’d never been able to stay awake for it before then.

“May and Ben were my family. They didn’t raise me all the way, I mean, I was ten by the time we met. That’s not very old for fae, but I think it’s pretty old by human standards.”

“Not really…”

“Well it felt older than I felt with the fae, so _there_ . It was really nice, though. I loved them so much, like- like I would’ve died for them. Ben always said this _thing_ when he was working. “P- Spidey, if you can help someone out, you should. I can fix the door for these people so I will, whether they can pay me or not.” Aunt—Aunt May agreed with him, even though we were only just getting by. They’d’ve been fine if they hadn’t taken me in. We were only struggling ‘cause I was there… so I maaaaybe tried to find another witch to uh, sell stuff to.

“She got mad at me, though. I guess the hair didn’t work right for her potions or whatever since I had that other spell on me and she came hunting me down. Busted through the gates and made a mess of the house. She was gonna take me away but… Ben stood up to her. She dragged him out here, to the woods, and I went after them just in time to see her- to see her-”

“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay Spidey.”

“…sorry.”

“Never apologize for trauma. I… I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“It’s uh, yeah.I appreciate it. That’s—that means a lot. Th- …thanks, guys.”

“You good?”

“Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, I’m good, I’m good. I’ll just… anyways I saw her— and he was— and then I- I got so mad. Aunt May said I pushed the spell that made me seem human right off. I lost it on the witch, but, well, I was twelve, and even though I did my best I didn’t know a whole lot about, like, regular fae stuff. She would’ve gotten me too, but there was this one goblin nearby and he helped me out. The witch… well, it doesn’t matter. But that goblin became a good friend of mine, especially since I couldn’t live in the city anymore. I had no control of my glamor and I just wasn’t good at looking human. Aunt May used to visit me every day. They called her crazy for going in the woods all the time. It’s not like there were any fae to get her though, and that’s what they were afraid of.”

“There… weren’t any fae?”

“Harry—that’s the goblin I was friends with—told me that all the fae moved out when the gates were built. I’m the only one. I… did want to leave. I thought May wouldn’t want to see me—it was all my fault, that Ben’s gone. I _killed_ him. I only ever stayed because I- because I couldn’t leave Aunt May. I just… she never deserved to be alone.”

“Does she still visit you?”

“…”

“Oh, _Spidey_.”

“It’s—she was—and we just-”

“Breathe. Here, with me. In, two, three, four; hold, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And release—slowly!—three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Again. Careful.”

“…you guys are really nice…”

“It’s just a hug. Don’t read too much into it. Dork.”

“ _That means she thinks you’re nice t_ oO—HEy! Don’t hit me!”

“It was just last year…”

“When she—?”

“Was _murdered_. Yeah. But it… wait, okay. Sorry. Let me…”

“Take your time.”

“It’s your time too… um. Let me just… here.”

“What is _that_!?”

“This is what the first goblin looked like. All the oldest ones look like her, at least a little. That’s why the Goblin King is king here—he’s got more power, being one of the oldest. The first goblin was… related to the fae I guess, because she was a worse trickster than the most malicious fae. Or- that’s what the stories say, anyways.”

“Where did you learn this?”

“Harry. He- liked to tell stories. He liked being friends with me. I liked being friends with him, too. He made me feel… like Aunt May and Uncle Ben made me feel. Important. That’s—not what I’m trying to tell you. Okay. Okay okay okay. So the first goblin was tricky. When she had kids, she wanted them to be powerful. Strong. She disguised herself to look frail and helpless- not with a glamor, goblins don’t have that. Some kind of Olde magick, probably. The story goes that she went around to every species and asked them if they would promise to do her children no harm. And everyone looked at this weak old woman and promised with bonding magick not to hurt her precious children, not knowing who she was, and what her children were. They say that kind of magic doesn’t exist anymore because of how much was used for her children.

“So nobody could kill the first goblins, and they grew strong and powerful, destroying old civilizations. Harry always seemed a little proud and scared when he told that part.”

“So did they just die of old age?”

“Not exactly. See, I don’t know if you know this, but fae are suspicious creatures.”

“You don’t say?”

“Yeah. But it was probably a good thing this time. The old fae who made the deal with bonding magick was careful about it. They promised not to hurt the first goblin’s children _first_. The goblin, knowing she wouldn’t get anything else out of them, let it be. She warned her children that the fae would leave them be unless attacked, and so when the goblins went rampaging, the fae kingdoms were untouched. The fae took offense to the destruction-”

“It kiiiiiiiinda seems like what the fae do though.”

“Fae are subtle, and we like playing. Outright destruction’s no fun. Anyways, the fae took offense and came up with a plot to take the goblins down. They snuck into the cities and kingdoms and territories that remained, using powerful glamor to mimic the locals. When the goblins came and attacked, the fae deliberately allowed themselves to be hurt, and thus the contract broke.”

“ _Thus._ ”

“Shut up! It’s how Harry always told it. With fae hurt by goblin hands, true harm could now be dealt to the goblins. And so the oldest goblins fell, beaten into the ground. The goblins we have now are smaller and less powerful, _thousands_ of generations younger than the oldest. Anyone can hurt them now, but they’ll always be a little less strong than the fae, and any fae-made weapon can cause tons of extra damage.”

“So how come Harry decided to be friends with you? Like, since you could kill him easily?”

“At first it was just because he was lonely, I think. I was a prime candidate because we were roughly the same age, _and_ he’d just saved my life. If I wanted to kill him—which I didn’t—I couldn’t do so until I paid off that debt. It would be safe to be friends with me. And... I don't really believe that anything is inherently bad, y'know? People- any species- can change. We were friends for _real_ for about two years before things fell apart. I was… fourteen? I dunno. We’d just finished driving out this group of vampires that wanted to move in. Well—the goblins drove them out; I helped because they could hurt Aunt May if they stayed.

“A couple of fae passed through just after that. They’d been chasing that particular group of vampires for years apparently. I guess a bunch of them had been killed by the vampires and wanted to stop the group from doing more damage. They were a lot nicer than the fae I grew up near, so I, y’know, hung out with them a bit, told them what I could about the vampires. One of them, uh-- let’s call her Ghost-- taught me to make those spider necklaces.”

“Is it a fae thing?”

“Uh- no it’s pretty much exclusive to spider-fae.”

“ _What_.”

“Well I—I don’t know if you’ve noticed my decorations and my _friends_ here, but I’m connected to spiders. Most fae are connected to something— actually, now that I think about it, everyone in that group was connected to spiders. Huh. Anyways. Harry got… jealous when I hung out with those fae? It’s crazy, because they were gone within a week-”

“Wait a minute, two days ago you said you didn’t know human measurements of time!”

“Did I say that? Or did you just assume that’s what I meant?”

“…I _hate_ you.”

“She doesn’t mean that-”

“I _do_ -”

“THEY WERE GONE WITHIN A WEEK-”

“Stop _shouting_.”

“Then be _quiet_. Harry started acting strange after they left. He’d invite me to his home, give me ‘gifts’ that I stopped accepting when I learned he wanted something in return, and just… he didn’t seem real anymore. Not all there, like he was always thinking about something else. I was worried, y’know, because he was my friend. I asked his dad if Harry was feeling okay, and he got scarily defensive. It was like I’d threatened his throne or something.”

“Hold up, Harry’s _dad_ is the Goblin King???”

“Yeah. That was…. kind of the whole problem. I uh, spied on them just a _liiiiiiitle_ bit after that. What? They were being weird! Stop looking at me like that, you don’t know what was going on!”

“So _tell us_ what was going on!”

“Yeah, it turned out Harry hadn’t gotten jealous of those other fae, his dad did. I guess since Harry and I were so close he just assumed I was part of his court—and just think how _powerful_ he must be, to get a fae in his court. Basically he thought that I was gonna leave with the fae, and he didn’t wanted to lose the status I brought him. He manipulated Harry into believing I didn’t really like him, so Harry started to do things that would put me in debt to him.”

“Wow, great parenting. There’s no way _that_ can go wrong.”

“I kind of… got mad at Harry for believing him. Uh- a lot of stuff happened, but long story short Harry and I stopped being friends. I didn’t want to be used, and I didn’t want Harry to be used. I thought the best way to protect us both was to stay away.

“It didn’t go well. I- I- …I didn’t have the goblins anymore. Just Aunt May. And… you were right, earlier, when you said spiders aren’t normally social. But those that are put _everything_ into their community, into their family. I wanted to give Aunt May everything she deserved. She deserved a long, happy life with her husband. Instead— instead her husband was stolen from her for defending some dumb fae kid, and she was killed by goblins for continuing to love that dumb fae anyway.”

“ _No_.”

“…yeah.”

“So that’s why…”

“Why I don’t like the Goblin King. Yeah. He thought that killing the last of my family would bring me back to him.”

“What happened to Harry?”

“I… don’t know. I haven’t seen him since I saw Aunt May…”

* * *

“Damn,” says Ned. “That… that sucks, man.”

Spidey nods. “Yeah, I guess.”

MJ frowns, thinking. Something doesn’t quite add up here. “Why did you tell us all that?”

“Uh, you asked? We made a deal, remember?”

“Yeah… but we didn’t give you nearly as much.”

“She’s right,” Ned says, confused. “You gave us your whole _life_ , dude. We just told you little pieces.”

Spidey tilts his head. His fingers dance, weaving a complex structure like the one he’d shown them of the first goblin. The web in his hands glimmers faintly, the image of a flower visible. “You’ve given me more than you know,” he says after a long moment.

“Right,” MJ says uncertainly.

Ned hesitates, fiddling with his necklace. In Spidey’s home, it gives off the same pale glow as the webs on the walls. “So… the Goblin King wants to get rid of _all_ fae because he can’t have you?”

Spidey huffs a laugh, sounding a little hysterical. “I don’t know! I didn’t even know he _wanted_ to destroy fae until that goblin told you yesterday.”

Mentally, MJ draws a map of events. Spidey was raised partially by humans that he loved—and she believes him. Maybe Ned was right, when he said Spidey seemed like he’d be a good friend. She shakes her head; she can think more on that later. The people—May and Ben—both eventually died, and now Spidey’s locked in some kind of war with the goblins. War might be a little strong; Spidey’s the only fae in the woods after all. A feud, then.

She’s astonished to find that she wants to help Spidey take down the goblins.

“We need a plan,” she determines, tapping a finger to her open palm in thought.

“A plan… for what?” Spidey asks, like a dumbass.

“To defeat the goblin king.”

* * *

It had taken _way_ more effort than she thought to get the losers on board. Spidey had been content to just survive; not fighting against those who hurt him, just avoiding a conflict he knew he couldn’t win.

“Come _on_ ,” she’d goaded. “Don’t you want to get back at them? Aren’t you even a little angry?”

There’d been a brief flare of heat at her neck, matching the blank whiteness that had come over Spidey’s eyes for half a second. “Don’t question how much I hate the King for killing Aunt May,” he said lowly, and for the first time since they’d entered Spidey’s home, MJ was well and truly afraid of him.

Ned had attempted to be the voice of reason—“Guys, this is crazy. There’s just three of us, and plus, MJ, we’re only human!”—but she wasn’t to be deterred. Taking down a corrupt monarchy was honestly a dream come true, even if it was a monarchy that she, at present, knew very little about.

It didn’t matter. Spidey was good at fighting—he was alone in a forest with goblins that hated him, he’d have to be good to survive—and he hadn’t said, but it was clear he’d gotten a better handle on his magic since his aunt died. Or at least, MJ assumed he had, because his glamor was strong enough to pass for human now. Ned and MJ could wield iron. They could storm wherever the goblin’s Kingdom hid if they bedecked themselves with it—and maybe got an iron crowbar, MJ mused. It was a great plan.

MJ and Ned left Spidey that day with promises to return the next day after classes and continue planning. MJ goes to bed that night after slipping past her mom with an excuse that the studying had worn her out, pleased with all she accomplished.

She doesn’t take off the necklace Spidey gifted her, and her eyes slip shut before she can see the way it lights up with the same white-blue light of his home, pulsing to her heartbeat.

She wakes in the morning, gathers her classbooks, and tucks the necklace under her shirt before her mom can see. She’s oddly elated as she walks out the door to meet with Ned; something about today seems _special_.

Ned’s in the same mood if the grin on his face is anything to go by. He gives her a side hug—not a rarity, but Ned’s hugs are still something to be cherished—and warmth blossoms near her collarbone.

Classes pass in a blur of statistics and literature. She pays close attention to history today, and jots notes of anything that could be useful to the overthrowing of the Goblin King. Ned gives her wide eyes across the hall after his Culture class, and it becomes apparent why once iron necklaces are passed around during her own Culture period. Her mood drops a little once she’s put it on, but she writes it off as being uncomfortable and wraps it around her ankle to alleviate the feeling instead.

She’s still in an excellent mood when classes let out for the day, despite Flash’s… existence. She drew no less than three different teachers in crisis and had time during a first aid review to add on to her new essay— “Why Fae, Despite the Dangers, Should be Given a Chance.” She doesn’t expect anyone to want to read it, but it’s fun to write a shocking article with facts to back it up.

Her heart doesn’t drop until she and Ned turn the corner and see _Spidey_ wandering the streets aimlessly.

She grabs him by the arm and drags him to her favorite hiding place: a large tree behind the library, tucked away on its lonesome. “What are you doing here?” she hisses.

“ _How_ are you doing here?” Ned adds. “I mean— how did you get here?”

Spidey wiggles ecstatically. “I wasn’t really sure it would work—I mean, _theoretically_ I thought it would but—look, it did work, and now I can visit you!”

“What worked?”

Spidey gulps, his smile fading at her tone. He reaches forward and pulls Ned’s necklace into the light. “I put a part of me in these. Near you, they can… _resist iron_ … and I can stand it a little better when you wear them.” His hands are covered with light burns, the skin already peeling off to show new, healed skin underneath. “I can’t quite jump over the gates, but with a boost at the top I can manage to get in.”

“You used us,” MJ says blankly. She takes the necklace off, the spider inside dull.

His eyes go wide. “No no no no, no it’s not like that, MJ—please-” He grabs her hand, hissing when his fingers touch her ring. For some reason, he doesn’t let go. “I swear, the necklaces really were a gift! I just—I just…” he steps back, shoulders pulled to his ears. “… I wanted to see you.”

“We said we’d come visit,” she snaps. “How did you even know where we’d be? Have you been watching us from the woods?”

“MJ!” Ned’s hands flutter in panic. He probably wishes he had his hat. “Spidey used to _live_ here. He knows where the class building is.”

She huffs. “Why the necklaces then? Kind of a cruel trick.” It dangles from her finger, swaying.

Spidey flops down, not bothering with his usual crouch. “I just wanted to give you guys something nice,” he says sullenly. “It wasn’t to sneak in here. I only did that to visit someone.”

Unfortunately, she doesn’t like how sad he looks. “Whatever,” she mutters, but pulls him to his feet, careful to use the ringless hand. She hesitates before putting the necklace on again. The little red spider trapped inside lights up and fades, momentarily matching the blush that spreads over Spidey’s face. She feels an echo of his pleasure, and Ned’s grin says he feels it too.

“Who were you visiting?” he asks.

“Hm?”

“You said you snuck in to visit someone—and us. Who else did you want to visit?” Ned repeats.

Spidey looks down bashfully. “Want to meet them?”

He pulls them across the city, peering into shop windows and laughing at their confusion. He looks especially human today, teeth flat and ears round. He wears the shirt Ned gave him, and the patches on his pants seem to have magically been mended so that they look as new as the shoes he may or may not actually be wearing. Somehow, he’s even gotten rid of the smell of dewy wood that hadn’t seemed out of place in his home, but which would’ve stood out terribly in the city.

Finally, he pulls them to a stop outside an old house pressed right up against the gate. The roof has a few shingles missing and the front steps are creaky, the iron railing askew, but it looks friendly. Soft, somehow.

MJ knows this house.

Spidey doesn’t knock on the door, just bounds up the stairs and tugs them inside. Heedless of the dusty, cluttered table and chairs, he goes straight for the back door. It’s lovely; like part of the woods have crept inside the city with all of the beauty and none of the sinister shadows everyone seems to see. There are only three trees inside the gate, but it’s enough for the backyard to feel sleepy and gentle, like falling asleep in the sun while someone dear reads nearby. The overgrown grass and wildflowers peep up from the many smooth rocks that litter the yard.

“Spidey?”

Ned follows him to a corner, where a large rock sits against the gate, its bulky form the ideal position to rest and watch the world. Spidey puts his hand over it as though it were something small and delicate, like a butterfly, or, MJ thinks, touching her necklace, an isty bitsy spider. Ned follows suit, brushing the rock with his fingertips reverently.

Ned knows this house too.

MJ goes to the rock, steps light. Rather than placing her hand over the others’, she kneels down, searching. Ah, there it is. Etched into the surface of the stone by an inexperienced hand are three names.

Spidey settles himself on top of the rock, elbow resting on one knee to prop up his head. “Hey Aunt May,” he says. “Uncle Ben. I came back. Yeah,” he chuckles. “I know. I don’t visit for years and suddenly I’m here twice in one day? Crazy…” He shakes his head, flicking a hand like a particularly annoying insect was buzzing too close for comfort. “Anyway, anyway, this is Ned. And MJ. I told you about them earlier.”

“Hey Mrs. and Mr. Parker,” she says. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”

Ned gives her a confused look, and she tugs his hand over to where the names are inscribed, _May Parker_ slightly rougher and newer than _Ben Parker_ beside it. He clears his throat. “Yeah, uh, it’s so nice to finally meet you!” He glances at her, like _Was that okay?_

She pats his back, mouthing _it’s fine_.

Spidey yanks the both of them up onto the rock with him, nearly pulling her arm out of its socket with his strength. They really shouldn’t be able to fit on the rock together, but they manage. Ned squeezes in between Spidey and MJ, MJ herself pressed against the gate a little. Spidey half hangs off the rock, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

“You can call them Aunt May and Uncle Ben too, if you want,” Spidey says suddenly, eyes closed as he leans against Ned. “They weren’t… formal. Polite, yeah, but they were family. Just about everyone was family to them.”

They sit like that for a while, lazed about over one another on a sun-warmed rock, the shadows of the trees moving to cover them as the day grows longer.

Before they leave, MJ pats another of the many rocks in the yard, her dad’s name carved into it neatly.

Yeah, everyone in the city knew this house.

Neither she nor Ned mention the third name on May and Ben Parker’s rock.

* * *

They convene in the clearing she first met Spidey in, because she refuses to be tossed about like an empty sack of flour. Spidey strings webs in a loose circle around them, weaving in and out of the trees. The instant he sits down with them, there’s what feels like a rush of air and then there are spiders scuttling around, settling into the webs until they disappear again.

“Just in case someone sneaks up on us,” he says, lifting his finger to reveal glimmering strands of the web connected to it. “If the webs are disturbed, I’ll know.”

Ned glances at where a particularly fat flat huntsman spider had tucked itself away. “ _Cool_.”

MJ pulls out her notebook, flipping to a fresh page. She taps her pen, frowning. She’d felt so grand and adventurous this morning, ready to storm the Goblin King’s fortress and stop him from trying to capture humans—and Spidey. Now, she feels limp and tired, frustrated with her own lack of information.

“So, what do we do?”

She and Ned look at Spidey.

“I was kind of hoping you’d have some idea,” she admits. “Right now, most of my plans involve blunt-force head trauma.”

He shrugs. “Sounds good to me.”

“Um, no?” Ned squeaks, alarmed. He’d likely rather be able to stay behind and direct them somehow, but none of them even know what they’re getting into, and besides, there’s no way to inconspicuously communicate with someone long-distance.

She jots ‘ _blunt force head trauma’_ down anyway. “I think,” she says, tapping her pencil against the page, “we probably need some kind of map of the Goblin King’s…”

“Evil lair.”

She looks at Ned.

“What? It sounds kinda badass.”

Spidey reaches for her notebook, deftly twirling the pencil around. He scribbles furiously for about thirty seconds before proudly presenting them with an absolute mess.

“What is this.”

“A map!”

“It looks…. Nice?”

Spidey beams. “Thanks, Ned.”

MJ stares at the indecipherable letters and shapes on the page. “Did you take classes when you lived with May and Ben?”

He shrugs. “Yeah.”

“And you don’t know how to draw a map?”

“Hey! I know how to draw a map, look—” He points to a round blob and traces over the line that leads to a less-round blob. “See, that’s the city, and these are trees, and this is where the Goblin King—”

“—has his evil lair!”

MJ looks at Ned again.

Spidey blinks. “Sure, his evil lair. Then, see here,” he gestures to the tight weave of lines onside the less-round blob. “are all the tunnels inside. And here,” he points to where he’d put a squiggle and possibly a happy face, “is where he sleeps!”

She considers him for a moment. “I’m drawing the map,” she decides.

“But you don’t know the area?”

“And?”

“You can’t draw the map-”

She draws the map. It looks much better than Spidey’s. Of course, she had to draw it based on his strange descriptions, but it has a legend and some clearly identifiable landmarks.

“So,” she traces a path through the neat triangles that represent trees. “Ned and I will meet up with you _here_ , then we go around these rocks, where you say they’ve got guards-”

“Well, actually I don’t know if that’s where the guards are.”

She squints. “Spidey, this is kind of central to the whole plan. We need to know where they’ve got guards stationed so that we can sneak past them.”

He scratches the back of his neck, avoiding her eyes. “Yeah, but it’s been like three years since I’ve been there, and I usually avoid that area anyways, so…”

Ned laughs, a little nervously. “So, uhm, not to interrupt this minor blip in the plan, but what exactly is our goal here?”

MJ and Spidey look at him. “To behead the Goblin King.” “To put a stop to the King’s plans.”

Spidey whips around to stare at MJ in horror. “Behead him?! Like—like you mean _kill_ him?”

She nods sagely. “He can’t have plans if he’s dead.”

He shakes his head frantically. “We can’t kill him!”

She shrugs, lifting her fist half-heartedly. “Why not? Down with the monarchy, and all that.”

“Yeah, but- but if we kill him then Harry loses his dad!”

There’s a pause, and Ned half leans closer to Spidey, making as though to put a hand on his shoulder before seemingly deciding against it at the last second. “Spidey… do you know if Harry is even still alive?

Spidey’s face closes off, his eyes drifting upwards to consider the trees. The woods seem at once to be both vibrant and washed out, the muted tones of the grass and leaves contrasting against the bright colors of Ned and Spidey. Even the spiders, hidden from view though they are, seem to pick up on Spidey’s mourning, twanging at the webs to create a low, melancholic buzz.

Spidey’s eyes snap to the webs around his fingers, vibrating with the spider’s low tune. He stands, yanking them up, too. “You have to leave,” he says, gaze darting around, shoulders tense.

“What-”

He shoves them. “Go. Back to the city. I’ll—I’m gonna do a quick spy mission.” He lifts his lips in a half smile that doesn’t touch his eyes. “Find out how many guards there are, and all that. I’ll meet you at my- at the house we were at earlier, okay?”

“Spidey, wait-”

“Go!”

He whirls around, _thwip_ ing into the protective webs and vanishing from sight. The spiders emerge from their hidey-holes, moving in a wave towards Ned and MJ. She takes a step back, then another, until she’s running, pulling Ned with her, keeping both of them away from the spiders and away from whatever spooked Spidey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did a bit of experimental dialogue-only backstory there, hope it came across okay. The last chapter should be up around this time next week hopefully. I just need to figure out if I want to do an epilogue kind of thing or leave the ending ambiguous. Ah well, we'll see. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, maybe leave a comment to let me know ;)?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, a couple of WARNINGS for this chapter! There are a couple of *light* references made to non-consensual body violation (sorry that the wording is off, I can't think of the right word atm). This is also the chapter with the most body horror and violence. I don't have the greatest way to measure how much warrants the graphic violence tag, so if anyone reads and is uncomfortable feel free to tell me to tag it better.

MJ doesn’t usually remember her dreams, assuming she has any. She read somewhere that it’s easier to recall your dreams if you wake up slowly, and she never gives herself that luxury. Really, the last time she can remember sleeping in is… when she was eleven, perhaps, and spending the week with her Aunt Anna out of town. The dream had been pleasant; her dad still alive, her mother warmer than she usually was, and a non-existent younger sister to take care of. She’d also been working as a model, so she didn’t think much of it.

The point is that tonight is an anomaly, different from the majority of her life.

It’s true that she still can’t remember much, but the flashes she wakes up reeling from leave her unbalanced. She stumbles out of bed, dressing hurriedly. The necklace hums when her fingers brush over it, and her hands shake with an anger that isn’t hers.

“What’s the rush?” her mom asks, stirring her tea calmly. She doesn’t look up from the papers she’s poring over, but her pen taps at the table minutely.

MJ remembers being tied up and bound with what felt like ropes of flame, with long, disgusting tongues touching her all over and jeering calls while someone’s cold, clawed hand catches on her hair. A calculated voice whispers soft things to her, and it feels like oil being poured into her ears.

She pretends to look at the clock. She hopes she can fool her mom into believing she’s surprised by the time, but she’s never been very good at faking things. “I just… thought I woke up late.”

Her mom hums. “I wouldn’t let you.”

MJ nods, hoping to leave the conversation there. She tries not to rush about her usual routine, but her heart pumps too fast and she feels too trembly to slow down. She’s ready to leave in under five minutes (nearly twenty-five minutes before she needs to), and even has one foot out the door when her mom offers a few last words.

“People give things in many different ways, Michelle. If you give someone the means to find your name, you are still giving them your name.” She sips at her tea. “Be careful.”

MJ doesn’t try to ask how or what she knows. She just leaves.

Ned looks clammy when she shows up at his house, his moms trying to convince him to stay at home. He protests so violently that they relent, and the two of them share a glance before mutually heading to a magic defense shop. They aren’t going to class today.

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah. Spidey…”

“I think he was captured.”

Ned glances at her as they step into the store. “What are we gonna do?”

She fingers an iron sword. It’s pretty, but not exactly the kind of thing she can easily wield. “What do you think we should do?”

He sputters. “Wha- save him, obviously! I just… don’t know how exactly  _ we’re _ supposed to do that. Like, we’re just kids, MJ.”

“I’ve got some ideas.” She hefts her bag over her shoulder. “We’re gonna buy those chains.”

“Wha-”

“Hey, do you have anything for fae?” she asks the shopkeeper.

She perks right up, a stiff smile spreading over her face. “We have a vast collection of iron weapons-”

“No, sorry, I meant weapons made by fae.”

The shopkeeper squints at MJ, her customer service voice failing for half a second. “How would we—no, we don’t carry fae-made products. May I ask why?”

MJ shrugs, feigning disinterest. “I just heard they’re better against goblins.”

The shopkeeper laughs nervously, shuffling behind the counter. “Fae are a much bigger problem. I wouldn’t worry about goblins.”

“I don’t know,” MJ hums. She ruffles through packages of throwing stars. “I heard the fae moved out when the gate was built. Goblin’s are all that’s left.”

“And how would you know that?”

She shrugs, piling some chains onto the counter. She adds a knife for Ned and, after some consideration, the lightest possible Morningstar. “I’m interested in journalism. I like to know what’s going on. Besides,” she adds, leaning in. “I live near one of the edges and I’ve  _ definitely _ seen some goblins watching. Just figured I’d stock up in case.”

“…right. Your total is…”

They leave the shop, MJ helping Ned tuck the chains under his clothes so people can’t tell he’s wearing them. “What was that about?” he asks as he tries to hide the knife under his hat.

“Just figured it might be smart to start spreading the truth. Besides, if we turn up missing or dead-”

“Dead?!”

“-then she’ll probably say something about goblins.”

“You think we’ll die?”

MJ pauses. “No.”

She doesn’t mention that if they don’t make it out the goblins will almost certainly use them for experimentation.

* * *

If she’s being honest, it’s pretty fun sneaking into the goblin’s home. Ned insists on calling it an ‘evil lair,’ but that would be like calling the city an evil lair just because the people in charge are terrible (MJ actually likes a few of the people who run the city, but a lot of them suck, so for the sake of her argument she’s just going to call them all out).

Spidey had been half right about the placement of the guards, which was helpful. The goblins have several entrances to their dwellings, hidden inside hills and between rocks much like Spidey’s home. She wonders if he picked that up from the goblins or just found it more comfortable. If he hadn’t told them that the underground system had been dug and reinforced by Trows many years ago, she’d be worried that the goblins might try to dig their way into the city.

Once they’ve passed the initial guards, it’s easy to make their way deeper into the earth. Ned follows her, chains wrapped around his forearms to keep them from rattling over the ground. They’re also a good warning that goblins should stay back; he’s so bedecked in the iron that it would be impossible to fight him without being badly injured, and there aren’t many long range weapons or even things to throw down here.

There are an awful lot of gold and jewels left from the time the Trows lived here, stuck into the metal-reinforced dirt walls of the tunnels. They glimmer in the passing light of Ned and MJ’s necklaces. They’d both agreed that bringing a torch or lantern wasn’t discreet enough; they’d simply have to hope the goblins couldn’t see well in the dark. The goblins do keep strange glowing orange globes, eerily like pumpkins, in holes that look like a sledgehammer (or a large, clawed fist) had caused, but they’re dim and they flicker oddly, so it’s lucky that the necklaces had lit up the instant they’d attacked the first round of goblins.

The second round of goblins they meet is a little trickier than the first, partially because Spidey had been wrong about where this set is. They run into them in a wider tunnel that should lead to the King’s quarters. MJ recognizes them from her nightmare, and it’s clear Ned does too, if the way he throws himself at them is any indication.

The goblins face him head on, not noticing the chains until Ned spins to gain momentum, and by then it’s too late. Ned slams the chains into them like a whip, catching them on their mouths before they can scream in a huge stroke of luck. MJ smashes the Morningstar down on their heads, effectively knocking them out and cracking the great purple horn of the largest.

Ned taps at the horn, fascinated, and it just falls off, leaving the goblin with a bony stump. “Dude. That was  _ awesome _ .” He picks up the spiraled horn. “Can I keep this?”

MJ shrugs. “Sure.” There’s an incredible, heady feeling surrounding her, and she understands, just a little, how people who have power let it get to their heads. She’s not quite so arrogant to neglect things that should be common sense yet, and she doesn’t intend to ever get to that level, so she and Ned do their best to move the bodies into a fairly empty space. Eventually, MJ steals Ned’s chains to drag them, ignoring the burns that snake over the green hide. She gives them each a little kick, remembering with disgust the way they’d leered down at her—at  _ Spidey _ —in her nightmare, teeth scraping against skin.

They continue on, wary now of more surprises. One of the rooms they pass contain a musician’s wet dream—dozens of once well-kept instruments and sheafs of aged sheet music. Everything, including the human bones scattered around, is covered in a thick layer of dust.

Ned gulps, and they move on, hands double-checking the knives they both have stashed away.

Surprisingly, they don’t run into anyone else for what feels like an hour, though it surely can’t have been more than five minutes. It’s just outside where Spidey had said the King’s personal chambers were. MJ has to grab Ned before he runs in, filled with adrenaline and probably not ready to face the numbers she thinks are in there.

“…ook, just how powerful we can be! With this-” something clanks, and there are sounds of scraping laughter. “-we can conquer! We will round up the goblins from all over and take back what is ours—the WORLD!”

Though louder, it is distinctly the same voice that had possessively whispered to Spidey the night before. It’s cleaner sounding than the other goblins, but it oozes in the air like rotted tree sap. MJ’s grip tightens around her Morningstar.

Then, from behind them- “Wh-?”

She whirls and  _ thwacks _ . She looks at Ned. He looks at her.

They drag the goblin away.

She and Ned stand over the goblin, chained in the dead musician’s room. She’s got the Morningstar slung confidently over a shoulder, and hopes the goblin, who’s slowly blinking awake, can tell she won’t hesitate to bash their skull in. “Tell us-”

“Aw fuck, not you again.”

She blinks.

Ned blinks.

The goblin blinks. Everybody blinks.

“Again?” Ned squeaks.

The goblin clears their throat, pitching their voice two steps higher and their tone an octave creepier. “I’ve never seen you before in my life, though you do look… delicious.”

It clicks. “Hey, how did you get out of that hole?”

The goblin hisses. “I’m going to eat you.”

MJ swings her Morningstar off her shoulder and into the goblin’s face with considerable effort. Going for a cool, unaffected look, she taps at her ear with one hand momentarily, latching back onto her weapon at her muscles’ protest. “Not hearing any answers.”

Yellow eyes stare at her balefully. “I don’t have to answer you.”

Ned rattles the chains a little, catching on. “Oh yeah? What about your deal? Spidey fulfilled his end, now tell her the truth!”

Teeth gnashing, the goblin tells them that they’d been freed from Spidey’s make-shift prison by a small group of goblins who were on their way to capture Spidey. After some prodding and several more threats, they reveal that the Goblin King intends to keep Spidey as a pet of sorts, and then use him as a symbol to unite all goblins under his rule and eradicate all fae—for good.

“It will be glorious,” the goblin says, gleeful. “The King has promised that as it once was, so it will be again.”

“With every civilization destroyed and goblins being the most powerful species.”

They cackle, tongue flicking at the air. MJ, in a fit of rage she hadn’t thought herself capable of, pulls her knife quickly from her sleeve and slashes their tongue off. They give a strangled scream and pass out again. She slams a couple of the heavier instruments over their head for good measure.

She turns, and Ned’s staring at her in admiration. “Wow,” he says. “That was super badass.”

She wipes the knife against the rough cloth the goblin wears before sliding it back into her sleeve. “And gross. But… thanks, dork.”

“What do we do now?”

She considers for barely half a second. “I’ve got a plan.”

* * *

It starts like this: MJ, throwing herself thrashing and screaming into the King’s large rooms, sobbing that the delicate iron necklace she’d wrapped around her ankle started burning, out of nowhere. She’s no actress, but she does a very good job if she does say so herself.

Nobody makes a move to grab her for a solid five seconds. Then, in an instant, she’s surrounded by goblins on all sides.

“Is that a human?” one of them asks over her wailing.

MJ moans and tries to flop around a little harder.

“Someone tie it up,” the smooth voice of the King says.  _ Bingo _ , she thinks.

“PLEASE!” she screams. “THE IRON—GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!”

“Fae!”

“Eat it!”

“I call its legs!”

“QUIET!” the King thunders. “It’s just a human. Look at it! It’s simply pretending to be hurt.”

It’s hard to prepare oneself when one is currently giving the most daring performance of one’s life, but MJ is nothing if not ambitious. While thrashing, she reaches out to the Goblin King, fingers twitching. “HELP ME!” she screeches, voice hoarse. She concentrates on her necklace, remembering the spiders that flocked to Spidey, building their homes around his agile form, the way his eyes darkened when the goblin had threatened her and Ned, the way he’d laughed as he fought.

She thinks very carefully about the third name on the stone, beside May and Ben Parker.

She gives a scream that’s much less practiced than all the others. There’s something in her throat, tickling the way she’d imagine a plant would if she swallowed a seed and it began to grow out of her throat. She coughs and hacks until a massive tarantula pulls itself from the cramped confines of her mouth. She wheezes, too preoccupied with the  _ spider that just came out of her mouth _ to realize she’d gone still, panting with exertion on the floor while the goblins go quiet.

“It’s a fae-”

“What do we-”

“An infestation-”

“Where are they  _ coming _ from-”

“Put it with the other,” the King commands.

MJ gives her leg another twitch, hoping that the dirt she’d smudged around her ankle, the richest red earth she could find, emulating burn scars, hasn’t rubbed off. For a moment between gasps of breath, she hears the distant clatter of chains.

“Well? What are you all  _ waiting _ for?  _ Go tie it up _ !”

One of the goblins, lumpy skin a darker shade of green, edges closer to her. Their yellow eyes are a little rounder than the only other goblin she’s gotten a close look at, their horns smaller and not quite as purple. This goblin is young, she realizes.

“What should we do about the spider?” the goblin asks, voice small and shaky. It’s kind of similar to the King’s in that it screeches less than the others, though it doesn’t sound as slick and oily.

The King comes into view, and it’s the first time MJ’s gotten a proper look at him. He’s tall and broad, dull green skin tight around the sharp angles of his face. He has one dark, thick horn, curving from his forehead around to his back. It looks a bit like someone had taken the skin of his head and  _ pulled _ back, stretching it into a wicked sharp point. He has no pupils, and the surprising smallness of his teeth is made up for with the jaggedness of his claws, the same dark purple color of his horn. His ears are long, pointed, and there’s ragged wings spiking up from his back. They look impractical for flying, unable to hold the weight he keeps closer to him self by standing in a partial crouch, keeping lower to the ground. She’s never seen a goblin with wings before. He grins at the young goblin, and  _ oh, terrifying _ , he has a second row of teeth.

“Harry, m’boy,” the King cackles, and she holds in a gasp.  _ Harry _ . “I wouldn’t think a spider would be a problem for you.” He holds the silence for one, two, three-

“It isn’t,” Harry stiffly says, and scoops the tarantula up, the orange-red and black banded creature stark against his claws.

The goblin King nods approvingly. “Perhaps you aren’t so  _ weak _ after all.”

Harry scowls and leaves, the spider hissing softly in his palm.

She gets a last look at the King, dressed smugly in purple leather armor, as a different goblin, this one a yellow-green and with longer teeth, drags her away by the ankle that isn’t bound in iron. Their squawking laughs grate on MJ’s nerves, and honestly, she’s grateful when she’s finally shoved harshly into an ornate cage. She screams, just in case it’s iron. “Have fun,” the goblin cackles.

She rubs at her back, sore as shit from being dragged across the unforgiving earth.

“MJ?” a whispery voice asks behind her.

Unable to stand in the space of the cage, she scoots around to see Spidey huddled in the corner. He looks awful; bruises snaking around his legs and neck, accentuated by gashes. He’s been stripped of his patched clothes, dressed instead in tight, tattered purple pants. Rather than a shirt, there’s strips of green cloth wrapped around his torso, crossing around his neck to show off the collar—probably made of iron—that rests far too close to his skin. His hands have been bound together from the wrist down, and he holds them close to his chest.

All the open wounds she can see are clean, and even the dirt he’d never washed off is absent. MJ gets the horrible image of the goblins forcibly washing him off and putting him in this elaborate cage like a child that wishes to show off their new toy.

He stares at her, horrified, and she sees for the first time what he looks like  _ completely _ free of glamor, which is, surprisingly, nearly the same way he usually looks. His eyes are rounder and lined with winged black lines, making all his expressions more vivid. His teeth, sharp as she’s ever seen them, seem to grow longer when he opens his mouth. There’s a band of red skin around his forearms and calves, and an irregular blue band around the top of his arm, like a jewelry cuff. He shifts closer to her, though he stops with a rattle and a choked scream.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he spits out, gasping. The fabric he’s wrapped in had slipped, and the cold iron collar presses against his skin. MJ reaches forwards as fast as she can, adjusting it so he won’t be burned.

He tips his head back, careful not to brush against the bars. She makes note that the bars are probably iron too, though the bottom of the cage is not. “Why did you come?” he moans. “You would’ve been  _ safe _ in the city.”

She frowns at him. “If I want to take down a monarchy then I’m gonna take down a monarchy, whether a  _ man _ wants me to or not.” She softens, letting him see her worry for just a moment. “Besides, Ned would miss you.”

He tries to grin, but it comes out wobbly and pointed, an expression of pain. “How did you get here? I mean…”

She hushes him. “Pretended to be fae. Used your magic to convince the King.” She settles back. “Ned will come get us at any moment.”

He looks at her in wonderment. “You’re so…” his head lolls back, banging against the bars. He hisses. “Wow.”

MJ frowns. “Look,” she whispers urgently. Harry is alive.”

“He-”

“ _ Yes _ . But I don’t know if he’s with or against the King. He might try to stop us.”

Spidey’s eyes grow distant, the warm brown of them fading as though he’d put on a translucent pair of glasses. “We should try to get him out.” He blinks and focuses on her, the shield coming off. “Please?”

She huffs, but before she can respond there’s a clatter, and the door squeaks open. A figure emerges from the dim hall lighting, too short to be a goblin. There’s a familiar hat perched on their head.

“Hey guys,” Ned says, dripping in chains and arms laden with weapons.

* * *

They rush down the hallway outside, Spidey snickering over how they’d shoved two goblins in the cage made for him. He’s in a much lighter mood now, and MJ’s thankful he no longer sounds fragmented and afraid. Ned had brought a ring of keys with him, unlocking the cage, then hurrying to get Spidey out of his restraints. He’s still beat up and dressed in the goblin clothes, but he seems to be healing rapidly away from iron.

“Spidey,” she asks as something occurs to her. “You said you could resist iron when we had the necklaces on. Neither of us took them off, so why was it still affecting you so much?”

He skips ahead, avoiding her gaze. “I think… it might be because you used my magic. But I don’t know!” he adds hastily, glancing back to see her stricken face. “It’s not-”

“Shhhh!” Ned slows to a stop outside the same large doors from earlier, panting. “We ready?”

MJ double-checks her knife. She’d used some of Spidey’s bindings—the fabric that had been around his wrists—to wrap her hands, helping her grip her Morningstar despite her nervous, sweaty palms. Her hair tied up and away from her face, she realizes she’s actually- scared. The confidence she’d pumped herself with all morning—all throughout the weapons shop and the tunnels and the capture and rescue—has abandoned her now.

Ned catches his breath, lifting his arms. The iron links have been adjusted so that they wrap about his arms but hang freely with enough length to act like heavy whips. He pulls his own knife from his hat and pats at himself, trying to figure out where else to stash it. Eventually, he carelessly shoves it in his pocket, ripping through the fabric so that the hilt remains hidden while the blade sticks out at opponents.

Spidey’s face is drawn, round eyes narrowed. His fingers wrap tight around the hawthorn stick MJ had snatched when she and Ned dashed through the woods. Somewhere, she’d read they were a form of protection. Spidey has no other weapons, and he’s still beaten and bruised and  _ weak _ from his stay in the cage. MJ isn’t the type to pray, but now she screams defiantly to the deities of the world,  _ demanding _ that he get out of this. That  _ they _ get out of this.

He steps forward. “Everyone knows the plan?”

There’s only the three of them, and in another situation she might make fun of him for his phrasing. In this one, she and Ned just nod stiffly.

Spidey takes a deep breath… then quickly turns and kisses Ned’s cheek, blushing furiously. Her eyes widen and then he’s doing the same to her, dry lips pressed against her cheek with desperate force. He jerks his head, turning to hide his face. “I know it’s not a human tradition, but you should kiss everyone too. For… luck.”

Ned blinks but shrugs, leaning in to return Spidey’s kiss. He glances at her in question, and she shrugs, like  _ why the hell not _ . Ned’s kiss is less chapped, and she returns it quickly, glad her skin is dark enough that people can’t usually see when she flushes. She kisses Spidey quickly, his face red red  _ red _ and dazed.

“That’s a weird battle tradition,” Ned comments, readying himself once more.

Spidey’s blush sweeps in a wave down his neck, and red peeks through the wrappings around his chest. “Thanks. I just made it up.”

Rather than give them time to process that, he  _ slams _ open the door, brandishing the hawthorn stick like it’s a freshly forged sword still red-hot from the flames. “What’s up, Norman?” he hollers. “Sorry, but with a face like that I don’t think you’ll be getting my vote for ruler of the world.”

The Goblin King screeches, spreading his wings.

MJ raises her Morningstar… and  _ breathes _ .

* * *

_ Whoosh. _

_ Clang. _

_ Screech _ .

It all blurs together. She can hardly keep track of who’s coming at her, let alone where her friends are. She can hear Spidey yelling in the distance, screaming about May and Harry and so many names she doesn’t know in a voice so raw and hissing it hardly sounds like him at all. The King screams back, terrible words of pulling Spidey apart and having him forever, forever, forever, a pretty little ornament for his court.

For an instant, she can see him, limbs stretching unnaturally as he flips, hanging in the air just a touch too long. He contorts, and it looks like his arms break so that he has two—three? —elbows, jabbing the hawthorn stick into a goblin’s eye with one hand, while the other strings them together gleefully in his web, scattering them about the room.

She whirls away, fierce, bringing her weapon up to smash into the face of the goblin that’d just attempted to swallow her head. Metal rings to her left, and Ned comes into view, waving his arms like a hooligan and looking a little dizzy. His chains scrape at the hordes of goblins, lashing them with burns and knocking them out of his way.

At some point she loses her ring, having flung it into the face of a goblin. 

The spikes of the Morningstar pierce skin, leaving blood just as much as bruises, burns, and goblins slumped on the ground. In a brief moment of clarity, as she swings the weapon like a baseball bat into the tail of the nearest goblin, MJ realizes they’re beating the odds and there are more bodies on the floor than not. Take that, fate.

A wordless moan breaks through the air, haunting in its misery. MJ locks eyes with Ned and they double their efforts, bashing and crashing their way through the crowd. At last, they break through a ring of lumpy bodies. The Goblin King stands, triumphant, over another goblin.

This goblin has Spidey clutched close to their chest.

This goblin is Harry.

The Goblin King grins, rows of teeth glinting ominously in the orange orbs of light. Grasped in his claws is one such orb that looks like it’s been punctured, heavy gas seeping from it to crawl along the floor, swirling about his feet. “Sleep,” he coos, and Spidey’s limp form twitches, hands balling weakly into fists. The King lowers himself, petting his hair. “See, Harry? Was that so hard?”

Sweat drips off MJ’s fingertips, and beside her, Ned trembles. She hoists the Morningstar over her shoulder and pushes the damp hair that had fallen from her ponytail out of her face, stalking forward, the fog creeping up her legs the closer she gets.

The King tuts, sliding his hand down to Spidey’s chin and squeezing. Dark blood beads on his claws. “I’ve won, little humans. With him, the goblins will be united, and with you,” he turns his terrible yellow eyes on them. “We will  _ finally _ rid ourselves of our aversion to iron. You’ve even brought a backup in case one of you perishes.”

MJ wavers, the thick gas making her head feel heavy and her toes light. The Morningstar falls to the hard-packed earth with a  _ thud _ , the handle clunking down as if in low motion.

The Goblin King chuckles darkly, and the sound of it slides under MJ’s skin like she’s just tried to drink muddy water. “Grab them,” he orders, and her shoulders are grasped by a large pair of hands from behind. Twisting half heartedly, she can see Ned surrounded by wounded—but living—goblins, wary of coming close to his iron-wrapped form but ready to capture him regardless. Claws scratch at her scalp possessively, and a high voice whispers in her ear, “All that, and  _ I _ am the one who is free, and  _ you _ are the one who is trapped.”

She blinks slowly, and information runs across her brain, so quick that holding onto it is like grabbing at clouds.

MJ has always been good at remembering facts, though, and so three things become apparent to her: this is once again the goblin from the forest; fae gain power from broken deals... and Spidey has an open deal with this one. She just has to make them lie to her.

Her hand scrabbles at her own arm, fumbling to free the knife she keeps trapped beneath her sleeves. “What…” she whispers, the word scraping across her throat to drag itself from her teeth. “What… is your name?”

The goblin laughs, as she expected, and says, “You’ve been found out, human. You aren’t fae, and my name will do nothing for you.” One of their hands snatches at her wrist,  _ so close _ to grabbing her knife, ragged claws digging in. She goes completely limp now, even her eyelids unable to keep propping themselves open. Their voice lowers, serious and discordant. “I can say whatever name I want. Oswald. Justin. Flint.”

Something pulses behind her heart.  _ Go _ , she thinks.

“You’re done. Nothing can help you now.”

She can’t see it, exactly, but it flashes behind her eyes all the same. Spidey abruptly biting the hands that touch him possessively. The Goblin King screeching and flailing, wings spread for balance. The black-banded spider from earlier crawling over Harry’s shoulder and onto Spidey, aggressively sinking its fangs into him and dissolving, melting into the wound to be reabsorbed by the source of its creation.

There’s a thump, a screech, and MJ is released. She falls to her knees, panting. Spidey’s knocked out the forest goblin with one punch, and now he spins, pummelling the goblins that surround Ned, who’s pale but still manages to sweep his chains along the ground, tripping the goblins.

Stiffly, she pulls herself to her feet. The Goblin King lives still, and she doesn’t plan for his kingdom to last the night.

Harry faces her. His bright eyes are narrowed, hands bunched into awkward fists. Unlike most everyone else, he wears clothes that are almost human. A dull cream button up is stretched under a blue sweater across his shoulders, and he wears pants instead of armor. “Don’t touch my dad,” he hisses at her.

They engage in a strange circling game, where neither of them attack and yet they remain wary of each other. Harry strives to stay between her and the King, arms spread like he’s a novice soccer goalie. MJ stumbles, still off-balance from the gas that’s slowly dispersing.

She’s virtually defenseless, but she can keep him busy if nothing else. “I thought you were friends.” She fakes a step to the left, sliding quickly to the right and still failing to get around him. “What happened?”

He sneers. “Oh, I’m sure he told you alllll about it.” He lunges, and she trips back. “You can’t trust fae. They’ll lie and deceive and  _ abandon _ you when they’re done.”

She raises an eyebrow and resumes circling. “Is that what happened?”

“Of course! He moved on to newer, more interesting people as soon as they showed up.” He stares at her, assessing her dirty clothes, matted hair, and scraped skin. “He’ll leave you too,” he warns. “As soon as he can, you’ll never see him again. He attacked my dad, then vanished. Didn’t even  _ bother _ to explain.”

Suddenly, MJ can see Spidey absolutely whaling into the remaining goblins over Harry’s shoulder. He might’ve made a promise not to kill, but he certainly isn’t holding back. He bounces from goblin to goblin, twisting arms and breaking bones, sinking his sharp sharp teeth into them and hanging them from their ankles.

_ Wait _ .

If Spidey’s over there, and she can see him…

She takes a step back, then another, and another, then she’s turning and running on shaking legs towards the Goblin King. Harry squawks and she has to laugh, a breathless, hysterical thing, because without realizing it, the two of them had circled enough to switch places, giving her access to what she really wants.

_ Whoom, whoom, screak! _

She crashes to the ground, pinned by Harry’s weight. Her face is pressed in the dirt, so she hears rather than sees his emotion when he says, “My dad will be  _ so proud _ of me when I kill you.”

“MJ!”

She thinks she blacks out for a bit there, because her vision wobbles around like she has too many eyes that are  _ everywhere _ . This must be what it’s like to die, she thinks woozily, seeing her mom teaching class, her aunt happily puttering about her house, Ned sitting on the ground out of breath, Spidey straddling Harry furiously.  _ It’s just like they say. Your life really does flash before your eyes when you die. _

She snaps back when a sharp pain stabs at her neck. She’s never seen Spidey and Harry together before. She rolls over, staring at the way Spidey looms above Harry. Blinking a few times, she manages to tune back into the world properly, her hearing fizzling a few times like carbonated water but eventually coming in clear.

“-could you?” Spidey sobs. “I thought you were DEAD.”

Harry sneers underneath him. “Maybe if you hadn’t LEFT ME for your new friends you would  _ know _ I was still alive!”

“ _ LEFT YOU _ !?” he shrieks, pounding the ground near Harry’s head with his fists. “Norman killed my Aunt! She’s GONE because of him. I can’t- I couldn’t be around him. And now this? Harry,” he chokes. “I thought you were better than this.”

Harry looks stunned, and he shakes when he says “He- There must have been a reason that he killed her. She must have—done something-”

MJ slumps over for a minute, so she doesn’t see what happens next, but it sounds like that rubber-band  _ thwip _ sound twanging off every building in the city simultaneously.

Spidey pulls her up three seconds later, a stiff white wrapped bundle where he’d had Harry. Ned supports her when she wobbles, crying into her hair, completely free of its constraints.

“That was so scary man,” he hiccups, tears wetting her shoulder. She hugs him back just as fiercely. His shoulder may be just as wet as hers, but she’d punch anyone who points it out.

Spidey clings to them both desperately, as if assuring himself that they’re both there, alive. He laughs wetly. “Next time let’s skip the part where you get hurt.”

She chokes. “Next time- next time, don’t let yourself be captured.” she pulls back, wiping at her face. “Dweeb.” She nods to Ned. “This dork’s the only one that actually did a good job.”

Spidey pats his back, smiling crookedly. “Dude, you were a monster with those chains.”

Ned grins, wiping dirt off his face but only succeeding in smudging it. “Th-”

“ **_SCREAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”_ **

They whip around.

The Goblin King stands lop-sided, his armor hanging off him in bloody strips. There’s a deep puncture wound decorating his arm from Spidey’s earlier feral bite, and he’s  _ furious _ to see his kingdom shredded in the prone forms that scatter the cavern.

Spidey goes stiff.

The King screeches again, deranged, ripping two globes from the floor. He rushes at them, eyes showing no thoughts in his head except for the rage that pours from his mouth.

Leaping to meet him, Spidey is immediately batted to the floor by the King’s large wings. Screaming again, voice going scraping and stilted like the other goblins, he mashes the globes repeatedly into Spidey’s face until they burst, more of that thick, heavy gas enveloping them.

Ned moves closer to her, hanging onto her arm for dear life.

_ Crash! _

_ Bang! _

_ Whump. _

A shadow emerges from the fog. It spreads large wings, and her heart stutters in her chest.

Spidey lost.

The rest happens too quickly to process. MJ bolts away from Ned, wobbling all the while. The King charges straight at Ned, snatching him up, heedless of the iron that burns his flesh. His jaw opens, clicking as it unhinges.

From her place behind him, MJ hears what he says to Ned.

“You were  _ everything _ to him, and that means you’re nothing at all.  _ I’m going to enjoy eating you _ .”

He doesn’t get to enjoy eating Ned, though, because MJ assess his back lightning-quick and jams her knife through a dripping cut, boiling his internal organs with cold iron. He screams for a millisecond then goes silent, but MJ imagines he’s still screaming so he’s probably just reached decibels outside the human hearing range. She grits her teeth, pushing harder, harder, trying to pierce his heart. Something gives in his chest, and suddenly her arm is stuck in his back up to her elbow and her knife is sticking out his front, his eyes glazed over in death.

She pulls both arm and knife out, says “disgusting,” then succumbs to the weighted feeling of the goblin’s gas.

* * *

Something scuttles over her face, and it wakes her up  _ fast _ . She rubs at her mouth, nose, eyes, then over the rest of her head for good measure. Wouldn’t want bugs caught in her hair and biting her, after all. Feeling safer, she cautiously blinks her eyes open. Rather than the dim orange glow of the goblin’s evil lair or the light of her lamp when she falls asleep reading or… yeah, she really had no idea what to expect when she came to, and yet the cool light of Spidey’s cave is the most welcoming place she could’ve imagined.

She’s not real happy he had a bunch of spiders watch her, the feeling of their legs still itching at her face, but whatever. She pushes herself up, mindful of the glowing webs and fluorescent bodies that live in them. She must be in that possible other room she saw when Spidey first brought them here, because she doesn’t recognize the area at all, even though it’s clearly Spidey’s.

Taking stock of herself, MJ’s pleased to find that, for the most part, she’s not injured. Sure, there’s a couple of bumps and bruises, and a scrape or two, but the drugged gas had been what she really worried about, and it seems to have had no lasting effect whatsoever.

She heads for the darkest corner of the room, rightly assuming it’s a door of sorts. She feels her way along using the bare stone walls, carefully stretching her shoe-clad feet out to ensure she won’t trip. Despite her precaution, she still stumbles suddenly and falls on top of Ned, who’s just kind of chilling.

“MJ!” He tries to stand, pulling her up with him. Worriedly, he pats her shoulders, clearly trying to find injuries but not sure where to begin looking.

She flicks her bangs out of her face nonchalantly. “’Sup nerd.”

A relieved smile spreads across his face and he lets out a laugh, faint with dissipated panic. “Dude, I totally thought you weren’t ever gonna wake up. You were asleep, like,  _ forever _ .”

Her own smile fades. “How long is forever?” She looks around. “And how did you get us here?”

Ned bites his lip, grinning. “About that…”

She whirls to her left when someone says, “I lived, b-”

She punches Spidey’s arm before he can finish, wrapping him in a hug immediately after. Face buried in his shoulder, never mind that he’s shorter than her, she sighs. Nobody died. Cool. No murder mysteries today.

He pulls back, draping himself over Ned and leaving her to lean against the wall. “It’s been a couple of days. Norman got you pretty good.”

“I had to clean you guys off when we got out. You were  _ covered _ in-”

“Right, right, uh,” he squints at her reproachfully, but apparently decides not to comment on her decision to kill the King. “Ned dragged us out of there before most of the goblins woke up. And those that did wake up…”

Ned makes a weird motion with his hands, a sort of cross-armed “cool guy” gesture. “They saw what happens when you mess with the guy in a hat.”

She looks at him blankly. “They were still caught in Spidey’s webs, weren’t they.” It’s not a question.

His arms drop. “Maybe.”

Spidey snickers. “I don’t know what time it was when you guys came to get me, but the sun was going down when I woke up.”

“How come you woke up before me? You got a double face of that stuff.”

He shrugs, smug. “Magic.” He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, sitting up so that a small “oof” escapes Ned. “I actually passed out again after I managed to get us here, so don’t worry about it.”

“He’s been asleep forever too,” Ned says over Spidey’s head. “We’ve probably missed so many classes. My moms are gonna cry when we get back. I’ll cry too, probably.”

Spidey huffs, standing. He hoists Ned up. “I’ll make sure you guys get back okay. Not- not that there’s really anything left to attack you, but… Anyways, you guys still have to visit me, so at least there’s that to look forwards to.”

MJ raises her eyebrows, not that anyone can see it now that they’ve started crawling through the crevices back to the surface. “Do we? I think we’ve visited you three times now.”

“Wha- no you haven’t!”

“Oh? Let’s see, once when we brought you gifts, once when we came to talk bout our anti-king plan, and once when we rescued you. Sounds like three times to me.”

Emerging into sunlight, albeit shaded by plant matter, she can see the way his jaw works. “You- that’s- but-”

Ned shoots her a look. “I’ll still visit.”

Spidey sniffs. “Thanks Ned.”

MJ tilts her head. “I was actually thinking you could visit us.” She stares at them, unimpressed. “Well? Your glamor is better and we know you can get in as long as we wear the necklaces, so what’s the problem?”

“MJ,” Ned whispers. “There’s still the whole, y’know, fact that we’ve been missing for several days. People are really gonna be on edge looking for fae. He won’t be able to sneak in anymore.”

MJ waves a hand as if physically waving away his concerns. “I’ve got that covered. I’m going to write some pro-fae and anti-goblin articles. If the class paper doesn’t run them I’ll just write it dozens of times and slide it under everyone’s doors. I’ve got excellent sources anyway, so what’re they gonna do? Say no to my well-researched firsthand experiences in which I cite prior universal fae knowledge to discern the truth?”

He blinks. “Yeah, I dunno if you know this, but that’s probably  _ exactly _ what people are gonna do.”

“Yeah, I know.” She grimaces. “So we’ll just talk about the goblins we found and introduce him as a captive we found there.”

Spidey looks at her dubiously. “How are we gonna pull that off?”

She slings her arms around him, preparing for the terror of swinging through the air. “Come on, Peter. You’ve already got an identity.”

In hindsight, she shouldn’t have said that during such a perilous moment. Oops.

* * *

MJ’s mom sips at her tea when she tells her the whole truth, barely batting an eye.

“Of course there’s no fae left,” she says, taking points off one of her student’s essays for bad writing. “They all left with the gate. That’s why we built it.”

MJ doesn’t question it. If her mom doesn’t care that she made friends with a fae, then who is she to look a gift horse in the mouth?

When Ned is finally free of his moms’ anger and tears, he brings Peter over to MJ’s. Her mom stares at him critically, and says, “Glad to see you found that Parker boy. His aunt was devastated when he left.” She offers him an iron ring like the one MJ lost, blank-faced, like when she’s particularly disappointed with the events she has to teach.

He solemnly slides it on, flinching at the muted sting. His glamour fizzles and pops, and Mrs. Jones promptly ignores them, satisfied

(They sneak to the jewelers later and swap it out for an identical ring made of venetian bronze, the closest in color they could find. Peter only wears the iron ring when he’s at MJ’s and can afford his glamor failing.)

It takes a while, but eventually Peter is given his house back, due mostly to Ned and MJ furiously marching around the city with signs, telling anyone who’ll listen (and that’s quite a few people, with MJ spearheading the project) about the kind of conditions he and they suffered after the goblin’s capture.

Flash’s dad, who works in real estate and had taken ownership of the Parker’s home, demands a group be sent out to find evidence of the goblins that supposedly live in the forest. Big surprise, MJ pushes her way into the group and shows nearly twenty people where she and Peter had been chained up, and really, with the King’s corpse right in front of them, they have to admit that it was goblins, not fae, who terrorized them since the building of the gate.

(The cocoon Harry had been in is gone. She doesn’t tell Peter or Ned, but she keeps her eyes peeled.)

MJ picks up her Morningstar on the way out, and Ned gleefully shows off that goblin horn he got, pleased with the positive attention and belief.

So Peter moves home, and tends to his family’s grave and the graves of everyone else lost to the fae. He goes to class with MJ and Ned, and he never learns how to draw a map.

MJ writes their whole rescue of Peter down and makes notes in case she ever needs to destroy another monarchy.

And if several years down the line, that Parker kid and the two friends who rescued him live together? That’s really nobody’s business but theirs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for sticking with this, short though it is! I'm working on something else that carries the body horror (in a transformation sort of way) and fantasy theme, so if that's your thing stick around! It'll only be a one-shot, probably hardly 3k, but if I like it enough I may make a series out of it. As an avid fantasy lover, it's my intent to put more stories like this out there, and if you happen to write one,,,,, lemme know. Or don't, I'll find it one way or another.

**Author's Note:**

> Title may be a placeholder.  
> Anyway HELLO! This is a bit of a baby of mine, I've been working on it since March and it is now fully completed, so you don't have to worry about updates ending ;). I can't guarantee it won't fall apart by the end, but I really enjoyed writing it! This is unbeta'd, so if you see something that may need fixing or explaining, let me know!


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